Del.icio.us
Digg
Reddit
Facebook
StumbleUpon
TwitThisA Miracle
Dusty let out a bloodcurdling howl. Sharon, watching TV, got up to see what was the matter. Dusty always yelped when she heard an ambulance. But the dog had never made this kind of noise before. Sharon gazed out the glass doors into their backyard, listening intently. But she couldn't see or hear anything unusual.Kevin didn't want to die there in an abandoned graveyard. Sharon needed him. A cold sweat came with a rush of panic, but then he saw a light like a star close to his face. He watched in fascination. He had no idea what it was, but the glow calmed him. And he remembered the knife in his pocket.
He took a deep breath, held the rope with one hand to still vibration, and sliced vigorously. The rope was under such tension that when he cut through, it snapped like a rubber band and shot 50 feet in the other direction.
Kevin slid down the tree trunk and sat on the ground. He tested his voice to see if he could speak. Gingerly, he felt the gash. His fingers went right through his skin into his neck. He tried another spot. Then another. You've got to be kidding, he thought in horror. His neck was gaping open. How much blood had he lost? He fumbled for his phone.
When she heard the ring, Sharon reached for the phone. "Call an ambulance!" she heard Kevin saying in a choking voice.
"For you?" she asked, confused.
"Yes!"
Quickly, she called 911. He's hurt himself with the chain saw, she thought, as she shuffled to the front of the house toward the path leading to the cemetery. She screamed for her neighbors, but no one was home. What should she do? She wanted to run to the woods and find her husband -- but who then could show the paramedics where he was? Fortunately, her mind was clear, almost like before she got sick. She realized she had to stay put and wait for the ambulance.
It had been a quiet day for Habersham County emergency dispatcher Deborah Williams. Back just two months after maternity leave, Deborah was looking forward to seeing her baby at the end of her shift. Then her line rang.
She heard a gravelly male voice. Kevin, desperate, had also called 911. Deborah asked his name and location.
"Hurry up," he begged. "I've got a big hook stuck in my neck." The man sounded winded, unable to breathe.
A fishhook? Deborah wasn't sure what he meant. "Kevin, we're getting an ambulance out to you. I'm going to keep talking to you to make sure you're okay," she said.
A supervisor interrupted to ask more about the hook.
"It's a big hook, like you'd use to pull a truck out of a ditch."
His words stunned Deborah -- a hook like that was the size of a hammerhead! She heard the fear in his voice. "It's okay to be scared," Deborah told him. "You've got a reason to be scared." She urged him to be calm, but all around her, colleagues were running to summon fire and medic crews.
The first emergency vehicle shot past Sharon. She frantically waved her arms to get the driver's attention. A second ambulance pulled up, and medics jumped out. Sharon pointed toward the cemetery. As they ran into the woods, she followed, limping.
Kevin saw a firefighter running toward him. The man knelt in front of him and asked to see his wound. Kevin slowly peeled his hand away from the bloody hook it covered. And he saw the man's mouth drop open.
When Sharon arrived, he asked her, "How bad does it look?" She held his hand. "You did one helluva good job."
The medics called for an airlift to Atlanta Medical Center, where chief trauma surgeon Dr. Vernon Henderson prepared for a Level 1 trauma patient.
Henderson was amazed when he examined Kevin. The man's neck was cut wide open. A hook emerged next to the right sternocleidomastoid muscle. The carotid artery and jugular vein were located immediately behind that muscle. If they were lacerated, only the pressure of the hook might be preventing the patient from bleeding to death. There was also the danger that the hook might shift and block the airway. Henderson ordered a breathing tube inserted immediately.
Miraculously, when Henderson removed the hook, he found the jugular vein and carotid artery were intact. He began cleaning and closing the wound. It took 200 stitches internally and an additional 21 staples outside.
On bad days Kevin feels as if he's wearing a tight collar. But most days, when he sits in a recliner in his den, he is simply grateful that Sharon was there for him in his moment of crisis, and that he escaped a lonely death in that old abandoned cemetery.
Advertisement 
