My Physical and Spiritual Revival

 By: Keith Braud

On Wednesday, June 3rd, 15 minutes into service, at 6:45pm I went into cardiac arrest and died on the church pew. 

Some background: I've never had any kind of heart issue or other health issues in the past. I'm still employed and working 8 hours a day. 

Monday, I worked 8 hours, came home and bowled that night with Leon and Carrie. 

Tuesday, I worked 8 hours, came home and Elizabeth and I went to play pickleball with Bill/Theresa and Leon/Shelia. 

Wednesday, I worked 8 hours, came home and changed my lawn mower blades and belt. Cut the grass then Elizabeth and i went to Wednesday night service. 

I felt absolutely no different than any other night. 

As said earlier 10-15 minutes into service the only thing i can remember is me thinking “im about to pass out”. Ringing in ears and tunnel vision. 

The next thing I remember is my vision slowly coming back. I saw Evan in my face and said something like “you need to move so i can get up”. 

Evan replied something like “stay still, you had a medical emergancy”. 

On the way to the hospital I began to realize what happened. You get scared at that point. Once at the ER I was greeted by Abby which was so comforting to see a familiar face. I know several people were in the room and I know more in the waiting room. Tabitha drove Elizabeth to the hospital. And I know Leon drove my truck home. 

I had a cat scan and heart cath Thursday morning. They did find some blockage and i was informed I had to have open heart surgery to repair. 

Later that day one of many doctors was talking with me. He said I want to tell you something. National statistics say only 5% will survive from cardiac arrest. Whether you survived by CPR or AED or other methods. I thought that was a low percentage. Then he said and out of that 5% 

less than 1% survive with no heart damage. And a cat scan showed I had no heart damage. 

Bypass surgery was done on Friday. Everything went well. And I was moved into the heart ICU. Three cracked ribs, electrical burn bruise on my back, and open heart surgery. Friday night to Sunday morning was the worst pain I ever dealt with. 

Sunday night another Doctor came in and was telling me the reason I had the heart attack was an electrical issue not plumbing. This threw me off. I say, so all the bypasses were not the problem. Major contributors but it was 100% electrical. He explained the reasons why heart attacks hurt is because your heart is pumping blood and if you are blocked pressure goes up and that is what is painful. That was the reason I didn't feel anything. An electrical issue stops the heart the same as turning off a light switch. He wants to put an internal defibrillator below my collar bone. Elizabeth and I only had a couple of hours to consider and decided the pros out weigh the cons. Monday morning back in surgery to have that procedure done. 

By Tuesday morning all IVs, all drain tubes had been removed and I did feel pretty good.(all things considered) 

Wednesday morning I woke up, got out of bed feeling pretty good. I walked around a bit. For the first time since being in hospital I opened my huge window shade and daylight was coming. I turned a chair around and stared out at the morning sky. And I guess I was reflecting on the past 6 days. Also for the first time being there I opened Spotify and was going to play something soothing. I was going to the classical play channel but right under it was the Christian Music play channel. I hit random play and a song came on that I heard before but was never tuned into the lyrics. As I started hearing some of the lyrics, I grab my phone and googled Mercy Me “Here with me” lyrics. If you're interested, play that song or read the lyrics. It was everything I was feeling at that time. It was then that I knew the Lord was right there with me. 

Someone sent a picture to Elizabeth of some church members standing out front of the church in a circle praying. I know two things were happening at the same time. 

My physical revival was complete when my heart was restarted. 

And my spiritual revival was just starting