By David G. Wallace

As Mark Twain once said, “the reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated!” But in all seriousness, I owe my life to all of my friends and loved ones here in the Sugar Land community. The past couple of weeks have been full of so many different emotions. Emotions of fear overcome by joy… emotions of laughter overcome by tears. But the one emotion that I continue to hold true, is that of thankfulness and praise to God for sparing my life and watching over my family.

As an active member of the National Exchange Club, my family and I were in Phoenix two weeks ago to participate in the National Convention. We were joined there by about two thousand "Exchangites" from throughout the country, including a number of fellow club members from Sugar Land and Fort Bend. On Saturday, July 15th, our family planned to go horseback riding, so I did not have enough time for my regular workout. So instead, I got out of bed, grabbed the newspaper from the door, and strolled down to the pool at 6:30 a.m., to relax a bit, read the paper and then join my family.

Well, these well-thought-out plans were not meant to be, and what followed was a series of miracles and the response to thousands of prayers.

I remember setting my newspaper down at a poolside table. I even remember walking into the pool and floating around in a state of relaxation. But the next several hours are a period of time that I will never remember, except by listening to the stories of those involved. For some reason, I was rendered unconscious and sank to the bottom of the pool. Based on the police investigation and reports of witnesses, it is estimated that I was under water for approximately ten-minutes. The doctors say that brain damage due to the lack of oxygen starts in the two- to three-minute range, and is pretty intense at four minutes. The fact that I still have all of my faculties is, in itself, a miracle.

Based on police reports, at 7:25 a.m., some of the hotel guests saw me from a balcony and started banging on doors for the people to call 911 and started yelling to maintenance staff about a man at the bottom of the pool. Unfortunately, the first staff member could not speak English, nor could he swim. However, he quickly got two other staff members to help pull me out of the pool.

Meanwhile, a maintenance worker named Pat Flores was taking her cigarette break. But instead of taking her break at her usual spot, she said that there was something calling her to get into a golf cart, drive one-half mile away and have a cigarette at the very pool where I was swimming. So here is Pat tucked away near the service elevator smoking a cigarette, when she hears all of the commotion. The importance of Pat to this story is that she is the only one present who knows CPR. (In fact, I was the fourth person to whom she has administered CPR; however, I was the first of these four to survive!)

At this point in time, I had no heart beat, no pulse, no breathing, lungs full of water, non-responsive eyes, and paralyzed from the neck down. In effect, I was dead.

However, the miracles continued as the first 911 call was placed. Simply by coincidence, a Phoenix police car was at the front entrance of the hotel. So, in less than a couple of minutes, additional EMS support was on hand to support Ms. Flores. Shortly thereafter, the Phoenix Fire Department and ambulance arrived to help stabilize me and start placing a tracheotomy tube down my nose and throat.

So here I am unconscious, and as they are preparing me for the ambulance trip, the police officer asks those standing around if anyone knows who I am to notify family members. Ironically, one of the first people to spot me from the balcony was a great friend whom I see quite often. However, due to the lack of oxygen and intake of water, my face was so blue and swollen, even my good friend Bill Deason did not recognize me. (In fact, later at the hospital the police had to take a second look at my driver’s license and still were not sure they had informed the right family.)

Fortunately, the police discovered that I had a room key in the pocket of my bathing suit. It was the kind of key with the magnetic strip and no room numbers for security purposes. So, for the next twenty minutes, the police officers went floor-by-floor and room-to-room in an attempt to get a green entry light. Eventually, they found the right room (on the fourth floor) and as Kathy answered the door, the stone-faced officer asked Kathy a question that she will never forget: “When was the last time that you saw your husband?” You can imagine the feeling of despair that quickly fell over my family as the officer continued by stating that there had been an accident in the pool, and that their husband and father was taking only a few, faint breaths as the ambulance drove off.

Before leaving for the hospital, Kathy asked that hotel security call down to the Child Abuse Prevention (CAP) breakfast that was underway to locate Brenda Robinson, a good friend and president of our local Sugar Land Exchange Club. After a few minutes of no success in locating her, Whitney, our 13-year-old daughter, said “Forget it, I’ll get her!” Whitney sprinted to the banquet hall and found some fellow Sugar Land and Fort Bend Exchange Club members and told them what had happened. In a matter of minutes, Kathy and Whitney were at the front of the hotel in a van loaded with Sugar Land friends, ready to go to the hospital.

Fortunately, it was at this moment that the power of prayer started. As the word got to the head table at the CAP breakfast, a moment of silence and prayer was offered for my safety. In fact, about two thousand of my closest friends (the bond of Exchange is very strong!) started to pray for my health and safety. Many of these people did not have any information on the current situation, but from the initial reports, the prognosis did not look good.

Meanwhile, back at the hospital, Kathy and all of our great friends from Sugar Land arrived to some somber news. I was on life support, had a ventilator breathing for me and still paralyzed from the neck down. An MRI revealed that my brain was swollen and my eyes were non-responsive and floating from side to side. Kathy was quickly assigned a counselor to help in making final arrangements, to help in communicating with other family members and to ease the doctor's words of “all we can do is pray at this point.” In fact, the hospital quickly decided that I needed to be Life Flighted to a second hospital, one that was better suited for the neurological trauma that the doctors envisioned.

Prior to being Life Flighted, two extremely important things involved in my recovery took place. The first event was all of our Sugar Land and Fort Bend Exchange Club friends standing in the hospital parking lot (remember you can’t use cell phones in the hospital) calling home to inform people of what had happened. From what I understand, the number of friends and neighbors, fellow members of Exchange, St. Laurence parishioners and others who came together in prayer was unlike anything I could believe. For this support, I am eternally grateful.

The second event of importance was that Kathy was asked if she wanted to see me (which may have been the last time alive) before the Life Flight. It took a lot of emotional and spiritual energy, with the support of our great friend Brenda, for Kathy to see me. When Kathy came into the trauma center, she had little hope of my recovery and, in fact, was already thinking of things such as how I would miss walking Whitney and Jacquelyn down the aisle on their wedding days, how I would miss standing on the sidelines and cheering for our daughters' soccer games, etc. According to Kathy, she remembers a number of people working frantically on me, but the rest seemed like a blur as she quickly became fixated on my face. At this point in time, I was still unconscious, moving my head from side-to-side, yet my eyes were still rolling back in my head. Kathy walked up and very quietly whispered through her tears, “You are such a fighter in business… you are such a fighter in the community… don’t stop fighting now.” Although I have no recollection of these words, I immediately stopped moving my head from side-to-side, and started to stare in the direction of her voice. I also started to kick my once-paralyzed legs for the first time.

As the Life Flight took to the air, and the rest of my friends traveled by police escort to the second hospital, something started to happen. So many people have their own explanation of what happened. . . One friend, who knows my enjoyment for spirited negotiations, said that I started an intense negotiation with St. Peter regarding the terms and conditions upon which I would enter into Heaven. According to her, the negotiations broke down so I never made it in! . . . Another who had heard me sing God Bless America at the convention the day before, insists that after hearing my voice, the angels decided that I still needed to work on my singing before I would be permitted into Heaven to sing with the other angels! . . . And one friend said that as she was deep in prayer, she suddenly burst out laughing as the Lord said to her, “This was a big mistake. . . I was looking for a Dan Wallace… not Dave Wallace!”

No matter how you look at it, I firmly believe that the reason that I am alive today is a direct result of the intense power of prayer that took place within minutes of being found at the bottom of the pool.

I have truly felt the power of prayer from our community at a level that I have never experienced before, and I owe you my life. According to all of the Phoenix doctors, police, and EMS technicians, I should not have lived through the drowning. For this, I want to thank all of you who prayed for me. The number of calls, e-mails, dinners, visits and well-wishes that I received typifies the community fabric that is unique to Sugar Land. As I am sure that you can imagine, I have had so many people say that God had determined that it simply wasn't my time yet, that God has many more "important things" for me to accomplish here on Earth. Although I am very impatient and want to know today what these things may be, I want you to know that I feel very blessed to be alive and will continue to be active with my family, living in and serving our wonderful community.

Oh yes, the commonly asked question… "Did I see a white light or did I have an out-of-body experience?” The answer to both of these questions is “No." To which my wife then asked, “Well, then did you see any hot glowing red coals?” Fortunately, the answer to this question is “No” as well!

Again, thank you all for your support and prayers. It has meant so much to me and my entire family.

David G. Wallace, Author

Note from the Editor of Leap of Faith- www.faithleap.org

This article is printed with permission from the author. It appeared in the Fort Bend Star during the last week of July 2000. The drowning occurred on July 15th, so after being in the hospital for a few days, David Wallace returned to Houston on the 20th. He wrote the article on the weekend of the 22nd, and delivered it to the paper on the 25th. It ran that week.

Published by LEAP OF FAITH- www.faithleap.org on December 2, 2001

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