Protective Hedge
The Wreck No One Should Have Survived

On Christmas Eve's eve, 2000, my children were excitedly awaiting their dad to come home from work because he would be off work until the day after Christmas. They had a big day planned because their dad works a lot of long hours and they don't see him except on weekends. We were waiting with a holiday movie and homemade snacks, yet he did not arrive home in the afternoon; he knew we had a big family day planned.

With silly excitement and fun plans, we waited for my husband, Kevin; with no earthly idea that before the night was over, Kevin would be in a horrendous crash. That he would come close to losing his life. That it would take emergency crews 3 hours to cut him out of the wreckage, trying to beat the clock before Kevin bled to death from the wreck no one should have survived.

His work had a Christmas party dinner and Kevin would be home soon. Well, soon turned into hours later and still no Kevin. As the hours clicked away, the kids were upset and my internal alarms were clanging RED ALERT!

Worried, I called some of his family to see if Kevin had dropped by to visit. No one had seen him and everyone thought it strange, so the kids and I held hands and said a prayer for their dad, asked God to place a hedge of protection around him.

Kevin had only started attending church, but he didn't truly believe in God or Jesus; he considered it more a myth he'd heard as a child. Oh, sure, he'd been saved as a little boy, but then he refused to attend church for many years and was definitely skeptical about what he heard in sermons when he did begin attending again.

It was no longer afternoon, but late at night. Finally, I put the kids to bed. In my heart, I knew something had gone terribly wrong. Despite the late hour, I continued to call and receive calls, cause now his family was worried also.

Then, around 11:40 p.m., I received a call from my mom. Kevin had been in a horrible wreck hours ago. In desperation, the hospital had gotten a new emergency contact phone number from Kevin because I wasn't returning their calls.

No matter how many times the hospital had called me, they got an answering machine. Even more bizarre, from the first police, to the ambulance, to the hospital staff, they left many messages for me to call, thinking they had reached Kevin's wife because the answering machine said, "Hi. This is Angie. Leave a message." It wasn't me, though, not once. I didn't even own an answering machine at the time. Even my mom reached this answering machine Angie a few times when calling me that night. According to phone bills later, they had indeed been calling the correct number.

After mom reached me, I called the hospital immediately. They were trying to stabilize Kevin. He needed to be transported by Life Flight from the closest big city to Indianapolis. His left arm had multiple fractures, and his elbow had been shattered; none of the surgeons in Evansville wanted to operate, or thought they could help him. Kevin needed to have the top surgeon who specialized in hand and arm surgery. Kevin was considered very fortunate to be alive after such a horrid crash.

In the wee hours of the morning, on the way to Indianapolis and the hospital, I got a view of the smashed car. That's when I took the pictures that go along with this miracle. No one should have survived that wreck, or so said the police, the hospital, and the surgeons. He shouldn't have survived, or gotten away with only one major injury. Kevin's guardian angel must surely sustained serious bruises.

On an icy bridge at night, Kevin had been in a crash between a semi-trailer and a concrete bridge embankment. It took the emergency crews more than 3 hours to cut him out of the wreck. Kevin should have bled to death, but it was so cold it helped slow the blood pumping out of him. His left arm had been on the vehicle's armrest. His left arm had been crushed between the impact of hitting the semi and the concrete bridge. Additionally, the impact had smashed and trapped Kevin inside.

After the Life Flight, and the top surgeon and his team operated for 6 or more hours on Christmas Eve morning, the surgeon announced that he believed Kevin needed his arm amputated from the elbow up. The head doctor said it was the worst injury he'd seen in his 25 years of specialization, and when they had made the first surgical cut into Kevin's arm, bone dust and fragments fell to the operating room floor. The surgeon said he didn't know whether to pick up the crushed bones and put them back in or what.

It was certainly not the cheeriest Christmas for Kevin, my kids, or myself, but I felt blessed that God had spared Kevin's life. So despite the stress, we received a great gift, the life of the kids' dad and my husband. To this day, I'm convinced that had the kids and I not asked Jesus to place His protective hedge around Kevin, Kevin would never have survived the horrid crash.

Many people were praying for Kevin, from churches to worldwide over the Internet prayer lists. My thanks to you all, although we'll never know the thousands to thank in person until we meet in heaven. Until then, may God pour out His abundant blessing upon you and yours!

Things looked impossible, but all things are possible through God.

Then the miracles started happening. First, Kevin survived the wreck. But he couldn't work and we had bills, had to eat, had to buy LP to heat the house, and had to buy another car. Yet, there was no money.

Churches and anonymous good-hearted folks collected money so our bills stayed paid for months, so we had food, heat, medicines. With this happening, and all the people praying, along with the cards, supplies and money coming in through the mail from friends, churches, and even prayer warriors who had heard about Kevin over the Internet . . . Kevin started to believe in God for real. He couldn't deny the miracles already happening through the grace of God. Someone even gave us a car.

The doctor did several more intense surgeries, convinced at first that they were a waste of time and the arm needed amputated. The veins and arteries had been stripped from his arm, making the bones healing impossible no matter how many plates and screws and bone replacement surgeries done.

Yet, one day a couple months later, the surgeon saw on the x-ray that the bones in Kevin's arm were healing . . . the gaps closing, the fragments and dust growing back into bone. But then the surgeon said Kevin's elbow would never work; nor would Kevin regain the nerve feelings and control in his hand.

Kevin stayed positive. He started believing in miracles as they continued to happen for months. Kevin, practically an atheist before the wreck, believed then that God could heal him. As his arm healed, Kevin amazed the doctor, who at first said "sometimes even a blind squirrel finds a nut." Yet before it was all over, the head surgeon admitted it was a miracle, Kevin's arm healing, admitted that it wasn't only the doctor's specialization or that Kevin was the luckiest man on the planet. Instead, the surgeon agreed . . . God had stepped in and performed a miracle. God still heals.

Thank You, Jesus!

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