At 4:50a.m. I got up and as I got to the top of the stairs Phil screamed call 911 I’m having a heart attack! He was still conscious but in full cardiac arrest. And then he walked up the stairs so the paramedics could get to him quicker when they got there. Now here he was in full cardiac arrest and he walks up the stairs!
The trauma of losing Keagan was still fresh and now here I was thinking I’m going to lose Phil. Okay God, what are you doing to me?
When the ambulance got to our house and began to work on Phil I was told he would have to be airlifted to the nearest major hospital. I just knew I was going to lose him. Here it was 5:00am in the morning and another major trauma. I’m awake God.
Our home is on a 13 acre lake and wooded area. The road to our house is gravel and it was iced over. To get to our house you have to go down a hill. As they were putting Phil in the ambulance I started our Jeep to get it thawed out and started making phone calls. As the ambulance was leaving I was backing out. I saw that the ambulance made it up that icy hill and I put the Jeep in 4 wheel drive to follow. Just as I topped that hill I started sliding back down. I was in 4 wheel drive surely it would get me out of there!
I ended up in a ditch. As I got out of the Jeep to go get help from a neighbor, I slipped and fell, not once, but twice, hitting my head both times. I thought, well, I’ll take care of that later. I called one of my step daughters to come get me. When she got there she got stuck as well. Her husband finally came to get us and had to literally tow us to the top of the hill. In that time we heard the helicopter land at the hospital and take off, with Phil in it.
By the time I got to the hospital to be with Phil the doctors had already started working on him. He had 4 blocked arteries and would require immediate open heart surgery. His doctor was absolutely awesome and compassionate. He said Phil would be the youngest open heart patient he had ever worked on.
When Phil went into surgery I began to pray. Here I was wondering where God was in all this, again?
The pastor from a local Methodist church I had been attending and a couple of my former neighbors were there with me.
Heather and Tommy had driven to Tennessee for a weekend getaway and I called them. They arrived at the hospital with neck breaking speed. My step daughters and step son were with us too, as were my mother-in-law, and brother-in-law.
When Phil came out of surgery he was hooked up to every kind of tube and IV you can imagine. Was I scared? You bet! I stood beside his bed and cried.