This is an extraordinary story of a miraculous recovery that occurred to a patient out in Denver, where I worked for about 10 years, about 30 years ago.

I was a nurse on a neurological floor at St. Anthony’s Hospital. There was a remarkable neuro-surgeon that worked there who was unrivaled in his skills and abilities.

One day, a hospital maintenance worker was up on the roof of the hospital at the helicopter landing pad. A copter had come in and a patient had been delivered to our hospital and they were getting ready to take off again.  This maintenance worker was unaware of their getting ready to leave and walked up to the helicopter just as the engines started, the blades began to whir and they struck him right in his forehead, above his eyes, slicing open his head. The top of his head was filleted backward. His gray matter had been sliced into as well. It was tragic.

The nurses and doctors on the helicopter jumped out immediately, getting to him in seconds, the man had seized and now lay very still as if dead. However, he had a pulse and was breathing. They called into the hospital, because the patient they had just delivered was delivered to the neuro- surgeon’s care that I spoke of earlier. So they knew he was there. They quickly apprised him of the situation and were told to take him directly to the Operating room, STAT!

They applied sterile wet saline gauze on is brain and head, and transported him right to the OR the surgeon was already there, scrubbed for another case. They took this man directly into surgery.

He was in surgery about eight hours. His family had been contacted and was waiting for him. Finally the doctor came out and told them that he had made it. But he was going to have a long road of recovery ahead of him, but he felt he would recover.

Now when you think about the damage that had been done to this man’s brain, the top of his head had been chopped into by a dirty helicopter blade. There was really no reason to think he would live, let alone recover. And if he did recover he was going to have such neurological damage, it would be surprising if he was not a vegetable.

I took care of this patient for three months. This surgeon saw him every single day. And everyday he would say it would take a little longer. The man couldn’t see, had to be fed through a tube, had tubes for elimination of bowel and bladder, and had to wear oxygen, although he did not require any assist to breath. And he was in a coma.

In the third month, he began to show signs of improvement.  For one thing he woke up! Slowly but surely he continued to improve. He was able to drink and eat. He was able to eliminate on his own, no longer required oxygen. And then he was able to speak.

He started physical therapy that first month, when he was able to eat and he slowly but surely made progress.

Well the ending to this story is the miracle. He left the hospital in the fourth month after his injury with absolutely no neurological deficit at all, except a slight lisp. He could walk, talk, eat and think like you or I. He continued therapy for several more months, and sometimes dropped in to say hello. But he was our miracle patient that proved that being in the wrong place but with the right circumstances could still turn out alright. And it didn’t hurt that he had the best neuro-surgeon on the planet either.