From Death to Life, Chapter 6

Greetings, friends! We are making our way through “From Death to Life”. This story belongs to Brad Tuttle. He died in March. Jesus brought him back to life and he wants to encourage you with hope because he is living proof of God’s miraculous power.

I’m telling the tale, one chapter a day, from start to finish. If you’d rather read the whole story at once, you can do so here: MyDeathToLife.com

If you like reading a little at a time, but need to catch up, you will find the previous chapters linked here: Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5.

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From Death to Life
_{^{by Brad Tuttle}}

(A true story)
Chapter 6

     Very early on the day I was to be released from the hospital, I woke up with such a spirit of joy and celebration that it absolutely overwhelmed me. A song came to my heart and I started humming a tune I did not recognize. I could hardly talk or sing as being intubated damaged my right vocal cord. I then texted out the following to a multitude of people: “Good News morning update!!! I have been smiling (laughing out loud) to myself all morning long since around 1:50 this a.m. King Jesus is such a hoot!!!!! We must share His Very, Very, Very Good News Far and Wide!!!”

     Just then, a young lady came in smiling and singing with a blue duster in her hand. I noticed the tune she was singing was the one I had been humming. I wondered who it was as no one in a cardiac ward smiles or sings. They are all busier than bees running from emergency to emergency with buzzers going off at all hours. I have no idea when and how they eat or how they function as they do. As I watched the young lady go across the room apparently dusting things, I noticed she was not walking but floating across the room singing and cleaning. It finally dawned on me this was not a hospital staffer, but an angel! Then she instantly disappeared. Oh, the power of joyful exuberant praise! Praise changes us and changes events. How can we not jubilantly praise our Jesus every day of our lives?

     My brother Steve, his daughter and his granddaughter from Alabama had arrived the day before and assisted in me being transferred to a rehabilitation hospital where I was to begin physical, occupational, and speech/cognitive brain therapy (I was diagnosed with an Anoxic Brain Injury due to lack of oxygen to my brain for so long). On the second day there, I heard the Holy Spirit tell me, You are here to demonstrate My love to all the staff and patients. It made a dramatic shift in my attitude from where I had recently been because it was hard to comprehend that I was even sick and should be in the hospital.

     Because of the drugs I was taking, I could not truly understand why I was in the rehab hospital; I was not a happy camper. But then God showed me that even in my weakness, I was to step out in love and glorify Him. I started smiling and talking with everyone I met or saw. I welcomed the staff into my room and thanked them when they left. When I was wheeled down the hall on the way to the dining hall or physical therapy, I would smile at everyone I would pass by—and of course, I was greeted with a smile back. Interesting how that works.

     In the dining hall, I thanked the servers and helpers, and I always tried to be wheeled to a different table to visit and love on different patients.

      I could not help but notice how all the staff, nurses, and doctors really cared about those they were serving. The nurses would push their computers on wheeled carts from one table to the next giving patients their medicine and would actually caringly communicate with them and ask them how they were feeling. They demonstrated true concern, compassion, and care. I would walk by rooms and would notice certified patient technicians gently touching patients, taking notice of how they were actually doing, and always with a smile on their faces as if it was coming from their hearts. All the staff always greeted us in the hallways. It reminded me of the Broadmoor Hotel.

     The same went for everyone in the therapy department—physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech. I noticed true devotion and tenderness as they dealt softly with their patients. They would talk with them, and encourage them. I could see in their eyes that this was not just a job; they were putting their whole hearts into serving them. Some patients had a tough road in front of them and it was slow and cautious going, but that was when the therapists would really pour out their hearts and expertise for them. They demonstrated real protection, support, and motherly or fatherly love and care.

     I was so struck by the kindness all the staff demonstrated toward everyone that on several occasions, I asked them, “Do you have to pass a ‘kindness’ exam before you are hired?” They really did not grasp why I was asking this question as it truly was their second nature. I kept thanking Jesus for supernaturally bestowing the spirit of kindness on all the staff.

      Kindness is one of the fruits of the Spirit that I have been lacking in displaying to a hurting, hardened, and confused world. God convicted me this needs to change in my life if I truly want to impact people’s lives as I was impacted by my time at the rehab hospital. 

     With God’s hand and the kind of wonderful care I was given, in only eight days I had graduated from being on oxygen, wheeled in a wheelchair, to walking with a walker, and to walking on my own. I walked out of the rehab hospital on my own only because of the power of God and His miracles! In just seventeen days I had gone from being dead on the floor of our house to going home.

      When I asked the doctor at the rehab hospital if I could go home and come back for therapy as an outpatient, she looked at my case history on her computer and then looked up at me standing in front of her healthy as a horse. I can imagine her brain was confused and she may have been asking herself, How can this be? He died seventeen days ago; now he wants to go home!

     I had excellent care. I am super blessed beyond measure with a wife who tenaciously acted quickly, who prayed instead of panicking, was able to activate thousands of people to pray for a miracle, but God had the final say. It was Father’s gracious heart of compassion that changed everything. I would not want to live a day without His grace and mercy, His goodness that never ends. His love that never fails. How can we not bow down in awe and wonder, and worship the faithful One, who passionately and radically loves us and lives forever?

Come back tomorrow for From Death to Life, Chapter 7.

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