Tell us your Miraculous story??

[Merlin]

I guess I've seen what I call miracles a lot of times. Besides living through 5 heart attacks myself, I think it to be a miracle that my wife is still alive. One day 2 years ago her stomach starting hurting with excruciating pain. I got her to the emergency room as fast as I could and they started doing test on her. They found out an artery had burst in her stomach. The Dr.'s told us that this hospital, being a small rural hospital, didn't have the felicities to do this kind of operation and had to take her by helicopter to another hospital 50 miles away. They were also in agreement that she probably wouldn't live to get there. Now the miracle starts for us. There was a young, new Dr. that hadn't been at the hospital very long that just happen to over hear the discussion. He approached us and said, "excuse me, may I interject something into this conversation?" Sure, go ahead. "I taught this procedure at (I think he said Harvard, not sure) and that is what I am doing at this hospital, setting up a procedure and operating room to do this operation. I'm not quite finished yet, but I am close enough that I think I can save her." Thank you Jesus. He had her in the operation room in a matter of minutes and operated 4 1/2 hours and it turned out she had 3 places that needed repair. The operation was successful and she is alive today because of it. We wonder sometimes of what the odds are of that happening. 5 minutes either way and that Dr. may not even have been there.

 

[Bonnie]

Wow, Mr P, Pale, and Merlin those were great stories, thank you for sharing those with us.. :halo: :halo: :halo:

 

[no1tovote4]

Not written well but he it is.......


This is a difficult night for me to relive. I was working with and EMS (medevac) company flying a twin engine
helicopter. The crew consisted of a Nurse, Paramedic and Pilot.


I was working the night shift, 7p-7am.
We received an alarm (a call) at about 10:30p to an MVA (Motor vehicle accident) scene about 45 miles away.
It was on a major highway between Athens, Georgia and Atlanta. It's a 4 lane divided highway with a large grass median but no controlled access.. Maybe you know the type, intersections along the way with stop signs only.

We were off the ground in less than the target 7 minutes and on the way...I programmed the GPS coordinates
for the scene and the Paramedic was attempting contact with the folks on the ground to receive the patient report, condition, age, sex and injuries. All standard procedure. He made contact and we were to pick up a 3 year old male. It always broke my heart to deal with kids...this one was worse, the report included the boys mother was killed in the accident. He however, didn't know that, he was unconscious. It's sad, and some people say sometimes the medical folks are hard uncaring callus people...believe me there not, really...it hurts, and it hurts a lot...so some just shut down some emotion, you have to...to survive.

Anyway, we arrive at the scene and I circle to evaluate the landing area...the best way in etc.
On the approach everyone is watching for wires....Helicopters don't do well with wires. We land on the highway without a problem, all traffic is stopped.

While the Nurse and Paramedic are attending to the child in the ambulance, I'm planning our takeoff. Using a very high powered light to look for wires, I find them everywhere ahead, so I decided the best thing to do was turn around and leave the way we came in, since we didn't see wires on our approach.

The Nurse and Paramedic return with the baby (I call all kids baby, cuz they are) secure the stretcher and we're off. We lift off and I turn the aircraft around to depart in the direction we approached and begin the takeoff...*From here on we're talking 5 seconds max*....I began the takeoff..looking in to the instruments, looking out in the darkness, moving forward and accelerating ...before I had the takeoff power set...I saw a flash ahead... a horizontal flash, bright silver. It was a wire..One of those large power line wires. And there was another above it!
At the same time the Paramedic shouted "Wire"! Then he started saying UP! UP! UP!....I had a thousand things running through my mind. I know there may be more wires above the two I see, but the ground is below!
I don't know if it was training, fate, luck, intervention or a miracle...I went down...something that's not what you should do really...but I did...and that bottom strand of power line flashed above me...and we were on the way to the hospital with the baby.....*END OF 5 seconds*

After unloading the child...and I was alone on the heliport...I inspected the aircraft.
I did find damage! A small cut, about 1/2 inch deep in the tail rotor blade about 4 inches from it's tip.

I know, your saying so what? Well...without explaining all the operations of helicopters to you...It's a BIG deal.
We missed disaster by 4 inches! We, were extremely lucky, even though we missed the BIG wires...We didn't hit the ground, when I went down instead of up. The tail rotor wasn't destroyed...we clipped a small phone line below the large power lines. and Hey...we didn't crash. Had that phone line been 4 inches lower at impact it line would have wrapped around the main rotor system and destroyed my ability to control the aircraft.we most likely would have crashed.

Now...was that a Miracle? Intervention? On whos' part? The baby, Nurse, Paramedic...Me? I don't know.

Now that was some good flying! Under the lines?! Geez. If I were watching I would have crapped my pants. My first thought would have been, "Are we going to have to take everybody on the flight in Ambulances somehow?"

Anyway the Fire Department should have warned you of all the lines before your landing and guided you around them. We do that as we guide the pilots in when we are on a call. It appears that somebody was looking out for you, even if it was simply training it seems it came in handy at just the right time.

 

[UsaPride]

Wow, Mr P, Pale, and Merlin those were great stories, thank you for sharing those with us.. :halo: :halo: :halo:

I agree!! There's some wonderful stories here, I loved reading them!

Good Thread, Bonnie!!

 

[Mr. P]

Now that was some good flying! Under the lines?! Geez. If I were watching I would have crapped my pants. My first thought would have been, "Are we going to have to take everybody on the flight in Ambulances somehow?"

The fire guys told us they had exactly that thought when they saw the rapid descent I made to avoid the wires.

Anyway the Fire Department should have warned you of all the lines before your landing and guided you around them. We do that as we guide the pilots in when we are on a call. It appears that somebody was looking out for you, even if it was simply training it seems it came in handy at just the right time.

We had meetings with fire and police about 25 of em (all at the same time) a few days after the event.
It turns out that fire did have a different LZ for us on the other side of the highway, but the sheriff made them move it. I don't know why since they closed both sides of the highway anyway.

Training, luck, experience....And a guiding hand for sure. I've gone to the scene in the daylight.
I can't tell ya how I did it.

 

[no1tovote4]

The fire guys told us they had exactly that thought when they saw the rapid descent I made to avoid the wires.


We had meetings with fire and police about 25 of em (all at the same time) a few days after the event.
It turns out that fire did have a different LZ for us on the other side of the highway, but the sheriff made them move it. I don't know why since they closed both sides of the highway anyway.

Training, luck, experience....And a guiding hand for sure. I've gone to the scene in the daylight.
I can't tell ya how I did it.

Good to know it wasn't the FD that caused the whole problem. The Sherriff seems like one of those guys who change random things to feel more in control. The FD on scene commander had priority and should have told the Sherriff to take a hike. That Sherriff was commanding things over which he was not supposed to have control, and didn't have the training to take it or correctly command the situation.

I am glad you made it out okay.

 

[Mr. P]

Good to know it wasn't the FD that caused the whole problem. The Sherriff seems like one of those guys who change random things to feel more in control. The FD on scene commander had priority and should have told the Sherriff to take a hike. That Sherriff was commanding things over which he was not supposed to have control, and didn't have the training to take it or correctly command the situation.

I am glad you made it out okay.

Thanks, Me too!