Every Scar Tells a Story

Kim and Chuck’s marriage was falling apart, and Kim had become extremely anxious and depressed about the situation. Chuck traveled often, which added to the strain. The couple attended Saddleback Church regularly and tried to put on a happy face and move past their struggles. But behind closed doors, they were growing further and further apart.

Kim confided in a few close friends from her women’s small group. They prayed for her and encouraged her, but Kim felt that her marriage was heading toward a tipping point. Feeling sick and stressed out all the time, Kim began rapidly gaining weight. Her doctor worked with her to treat her symptoms.

One Saturday morning, Kim returned home from her daughter’s soccer-team photos when she suddenly felt very sick. As she ran into the bathroom, she yelled for Chuck to call 911. Kim knew she was going to die.

Worried neighbors looked on as an ambulance and fire engine pulled up to Kim’s house. Kim had gone into cardiac arrest. Her neighbors watched in horror as paramedics carried her into the ambulance after spending 40 minutes trying to revive her.

At the hospital, doctors and medical staff continued working to save her life. Kim’s visibly shaken husband fought to remain by her side. An entire security team was needed to calm down the 6-foot-2, 210-pound man.

After five failed attempts to revive Kim, the lead physician was ready to pronounce her dead — but God had a different plan. Penny, one of Kim’s neighbors, was part of the nursing team. Penny pleaded with the head physician to keep trying to revive Kim. She told this doctor about Kim, her husband, her children, her life — anything to convince the doctor to not give up. Nearly an hour passed before Kim’s heart began beating again.

Even after Kim was revived, she was not out of danger. Her body had fought hard for 90 minutes. The hospital staff warned Chuck that Kim had most likely sustained severe and irreversible damage to her brain. Chuck refused to believe the doctors’ words and insisted that God was not done with his wife and that she would recover. The next day, after tests were performed, Kim’s heart and brain seemed to be functioning OK, but the rest of her organs had shut down.

The doctors kept her in a medically induced coma for one month in the hope that it would restart her system. When she first woke up, her entire body has been in “shutdown” mode for so long that she had no idea where she was, and she couldn’t recognize anyone in the room. In this foreign environment, she struggled to communicate. She spent the next three months in the hospital relearning basic motor functions — walking, talking, and even breathing — allowing Kim to return to her life. Years of physical therapy and one surgery after another steadily helped Kim recover. Over the next few years, Kim would need 35 surgeries, including one kidney transplant, to put her back together.

Kim believes the only thing that kept her going throughout recovery was the presence of God. Her near-death experience brought with it a sense of renewed faith. Every moment of every day is now precious to Kim. She doesn’t want to waste any of it. Kim has learned to look for joy and peace in every circumstance.

Kim recognizes that God provided so much during the entire ordeal. Not only was her neighbor Penny working with doctors to help save her life, another neighbor showed up to help calm down her exasperated husband in the emergency room. Kim’s renewed faith also helped her endure all the surgeries, therapies, and excruciating physical pain she experienced throughout her recovery. She lost one of her fingers and one of her arms was permanently damaged due to the loss of blood flow. These setbacks have left Kim with permanent disabilities.

Kim wasn’t the only one who gained a renewed faith throughout this experience. Chuck has grown by leaps and bounds, as well. Looking back, Kim now sees God using her near-death experience as a wake-up call to both of them regarding their marriage. Although she did not immediately recognize Chuck after her month-long coma, she vividly remembers how her sweet husband was there by her hospital bed every single day, holding her hand, caring for her needs, and praying over her. Chuck displayed such renewed deep commitment to Kim that even the hospital staff was touched by his outward display of love for his wife.

Kim firmly believes that her brush with Heaven was part of God’s purpose for her life. She intends to use everything she learned from it to benefit others. Kim specifically remembers reading through Pastor Rick’sThe Purpose Driven Lifeduring the time her marriage was in trouble, praying to God to reveal her life’s purpose.

During recovery, it became clearer that her calling was to assist others who were going through similar trials. Since her recovery, and with Chuck’s complete support and encouragement, Kim has become an in-home assistant to families with loved ones who are going through long-term illness or needing hospice care. Each of the six families that Kim has helped so far has been blessed by her genuine love for them, the knowledge gained from her own medical trauma, and, mostly, her assurance of eternal hope in Jesus Christ. When asked to summarize the biggest lesson she gained from her near-death experience, Kim answered boldly, without any hesitation and a huge smile on her beaming face, “God is real, and God has a purpose for my life.”  

“God has gifted me with this extra time in my life, and I don’t want to disappoint him,” Kim said. “I feel much bolder about sharing what God has done and the journey that helped me discover my purpose. Some of my wounds are external and immediately obvious to people. Most people ask me what happened, and I’m happy to share. But I’ve realized that everyone has wounds from life. Most of the time, they are hidden internally. Those wounds, though painful, often demonstrate how good God really can be, and I want to help other people see that. My own wounds remind me to continue sharing the gift God has given me.”

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