The song “I Still Believe” is based on a true story. My Grandpa, Joe Seaman, was driving his pick-up when he and another driver collided at a blind intersection. Both men walked away from the wreck and on the surface everything seemed fine, but things were not as they seemed.
During the collision, grandpa had hit his head on the back window of his truck, knocking it out and causing a wound to bleed. Because of the medication he was on, it took awhile for the bleeding to stop. (He had had a heart attach several years before and so was on an anti-clotting medication.)
A few days after the accident, we were on the way to church when my dad’s cell phone rang. My aunt was on the phone and told us that they were sending Grandpa in for a CT scan at the Mitchell County Memorial Hospital. He had been complaining of a pain behind his eye that morning and so they had taken him to the hospital. By the time they reached the hospital my grandpa was getting sick, thus causing the doctors to order the brain scan. Everything seemed to be under control, so we decided to head to church.
As we waited for youth group to start that Wednesday night, Dad got another phone call. After reading the CT scan, the doctors ordered that grandpa be airlifted to Wichita. My aunt said that my grandpa’s last words were, “The prayers of a righteous man are powerful and effective. Is anyone in this room righteous?” He then slipped into a coma and was flown to Wichita.
We decided to leave church immediately and drive to Wichita. Two hours into the journey my uncle called and informed us that the doctors said grandpa would be dead by morning and advised that we wait until then to come. Dad decided that we would travel to Wichita anyways and we arrived at the hospital around 2am. We were all allowed into the Intensive Care Unit and I will never forget what I saw. My grandpa lay on the bed in a coma, supported by a respirator with his head swollen because of all the excess blood that was accumulation in his brain. (The blood failed to clot because of the medication causing his brain to hemorrhage. The blood pressure had caused the pain behind his eye and the ultimately his current condition.) The brain surgeon had ordered another CT scan when the plane had landed in Wichita. This scan showed that the blood pressure had moved his brain stem over 2cm. The surgeon told us that, in his condition, there was nothing they could do. Operation would cause him to bleed to death and he was just too far gone. He pronounced grandpas condition as being clinically brain dead.
When we first arrived in his room in Wichita we prayed and asked God to work a miracle in Grandpas body. We all hugged and cried and slept on the floor of the waiting room that night. Most of my cousins came the next day and the decision was made to remove the respirator. The doctors prepared us for how grandpa would pass on. They said he would experience primitive reflex (he would wiggle is foot or twitch his hand but not know what he was doing. Kind of like “Old habits die hard” in the literal since.) They said that he would probably quit breathing for ten or fifteen seconds and then gasp for breath again. Waiting was the hardest part.
The third morning after grandpa had been admitted to the hospital, the nurse came in to shave and sponge bath Grandpa. She said, “Joe, I’m going to shave you.” Not expecting an answer, she was shocked when the clinically brain dead man said, “Are ya practicing on me?” Thinking that it had to have been her imagination, she shaved him and then said, “Joe, I’m going to brush you teeth.” Grandpa responded, “What are you gonna do that for?” and she said, “Don’t you brush your teeth everyday?” Grandpa truthfully responded, “Nope.” The nurse immediately paged the doctor and he ordered another CT scan. This time, the outcome was much different.
All of the family was contacted and after many tests, the doctor informed us that all of the excess blood had disappeared from the brain cavity, that grandpa’s brain stem was back in place and that their was obviously some supernatural force at work since they hadnt treated him with anything for three days. We informed him that God was the supernatural force and that the power of prayer was all the treatment required.
It was a long road back to total health, but after brain surgery (without the medication his blood had started clotting again and had formed a large clot on his brain) and months of love and support, Grandpa is now back home and doing amazingly well.