Near Death

      A writer of posts on Xanga asked for people to write about any "near death experiences" they might have had. I remembered this incident that happened a few years ago.
In the summer of '72 I set out on my Honda Humpback 450, that I had brought back from the war, on a 360 mile trip to NW Florida. At Cross City an oncoming fellow with a load of whiskey in him turned left immediately in front of me. I have no recollection of the meeting but the fellow who saw it said I went straight up in the air and came down (helmeted) head first on the pavement. He said I was going pretty fast and the fellow in the car didn't seem to slow down much when he turned. The EMT fellows (did they have EMTs then?) carried me to Shands  in Gainesville, a university connected teaching hospital.

Well, Shands had just received multiple severe injuries from a couple of auto wrecks and whoever  was on duty judged that I was Dead-On-Arrival and a colored card attesting to that judgment was placed on my chest. Others who could be saved needed the scarce resources so the gurney on which I was a passenger was pushed over against the wall in the hall and lifesaving attentions were focused on the other broken bodies that had a chance to live.

A couple of Medical students were walking in the hallway and saw the stiff unattended. One of them said, "Let's practice some lifesaving techniques."

They did that and in the process the body commenced to breathe, so I wound up in the emergency room, anyway.

My first memory is of being flat on my back and unable to move anything and there was a doctor in a chair far away across the room who was talking somberly to my wife. There were two med students standing near. The doctor was saying something about my jaw. Presently all three med types approached me and the doctor grasped my upper front teeth and pulled. My maxilla (I learned that word right then) came forward a full 2 inches. I felt nothing and was too groggy to render an opinion on the procedure right at that moment. The doc was demonstrating to the students that my upper jaw was in pieces and not well connected. Then I got my voice back and said,"HEYwhatthef**kleemealone!!!!"

The doc said "well he seems conscious," and a med student reached out his hand and repeated the trick with the maxilla.

 I complained weakly, "Dammitol! Can't you take his word for it?" 

The other med student did it all over again and I said, "What is with you guys? He wasn't lying! can't you believe him!?"

My wife said, "I think he's going to be okay."

This is likely not the sort of near death experience the Xanga poster meant but I was near dead and it was quite an experience. I was not then a Christian but, in retrospect, I think I was protected. I thank the Lord now for medical students.