Declared dead on arrival.

I had been drinking that night and actually veered over the yellow line and hit the other car. They had to get fire and rescue and they cut me out of the vehicle and when they transported me to Vanderbilt (hospital), Dr. Sharp said that he actually pronounced me dead on arrival. I was bleeding out of my mouth and ears and nose. They knew I had major internal injuries. I was unresponsive. They told my family that since I was a vegetable, (I didn’t have any activity on my lower lobes of my brain) that they needed to go ahead and make funeral arrangements. My Mother refused to make funeral arrangements. She decided she was going to go and pray. She went to the little prayer room there at Vanderbilt Hospital and lay over the alter and stayed there for over ten hours. So, Dr. Sharp said that he pronounced me dead on arrival. He told me that himself. Something spoke to him when he started to send me to the morgue to bring me back and do what he needed to do. So, they brought me back and started doing emergency surgery. They gave me, eventually, a hundred and twenty four units of blood. They kept me alive on life support. The only thing that I could tell you is that God had mercy on me and allowed me to have an out of body experience. I walked through the hallway of the hospital and immediately I walked through a door. When I did, I was in this small chapel. I walked into the front and I saw my Mother. She had her hands up and she was saying Father in Jesus name don’t let Rick die lost. Raise him up and give him another chance. I listened to my Mother pray and then I spoke to her. I said; “Mom, here I am. Why are you praying for me?” She looked in my direction. She looked around like she heard something but she couldn’t see me. She went back to praying. At that moment, I just felt like something said to me; “You need to do what she is doing now.” So, I lifted up my head, I lifted up my hands and I looked toward the ceiling and I said; “Jesus, if you’re real, help me! Mom is praying for me. Something must be wrong.” Immediately I felt a huge hand cover the top of my head. I heard a voice behind me that said; “I’m Jesus. I’m real and I’m going to raise you up and give you another chance.” Half of my family were in the hallway and they were arguing over where they were going to bury me. My Mother said that some were saying Tennessee and others saying Alabama. Well she had left and went to the prayer room. She told everybody; “Listen, she’s not talking to nobody about burial, she’s going to go pray and raise the dead.” A nurse walked in and said; “I’m looking for the relatives of Richard Madison.” My Mother said; “That’s my son and I’m not making funeral arrangements.” She said; “Well, I’m here to tell you that your son is awake and sitting up.” By that time there were ten doctors standing around my bed. They were trying to tell me that I had a lot of willpower, a lot of stamina. I wrote down “Jesus” on a piece of paper. I had a trachea in my throat. My mouth was wired shut. They had placed three steel plates, nineteen screws and two pins in the broken bones a few days earlier. One of the doctors said; “Look, he has wrote down something.” He started spelling it; “J – E – S – U – S” Then he was embarrassed. Another doctor said; “Well it’s got to be Jesus that he’s alive because we gave up on him.” I actually walked back into my doctor’s, the bone specialist’s office a few weeks after that. Dr. Marion Harper at Vanderbilt Hospital and he told me I probably never would walk again. It may be a year before I could use a walking apparatus. I walked into his office with a walking stick and he just couldn’t believe it. He said; “What are you doing?” I said; “Jesus told me to stand up and walk out of the wheelchair and I did.” He just shook his head and said; “You know I have never seen things go on like I have seen with you, like how your family prays and I don’t understand all of that but it’s working for you, so you stay at it.” I wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for a praying Mama. Thank God for praying Mama’s.