Do You Believe in Miracles?

In a world bombarded with negative news it is vital for us to hear stories of God’s miraculous intervention. Steve Budnack’s life has been an amazing blessing to so many people over the years. He loves his family deeply, cares for the poor and needy as a full time volunteer leading Parker Task Force an amazing food bank in Parker Colorado. He has been a true friend & prayer partner to me as well as serving on the board of Oceans Ministries International in South Africa. I’m praising the LORD that Steve is still with us today and I asked him to share his story to encourage you to keep putting your life in the hands of the faithful Savior Jesus Christ.

I had just finished a 3 ½ mile run and came home for lunch. At that moment it felt like an elephant was sitting on my chest.  I subconsciously knew what was happening however, I didn’t want to believe it was happening to me. My daughter noticed that I was having chest pains and “Googled” heart attacks to try and see if what was happening could be serious. She read off the symptoms to me and with each symptom I mentally checked off each box, my worst nightmare was coming true. I was having a heart attack. 

If I was at home by myself I would have fought the pain longer before probably driving myself to the hospital, which would have been fatal. Thankfully I wasn’t alone, and instead I had my daughter call 911 and the paramedics were at my house in minutes. The smartest decision that I ever made was to have my child call 911 instead of driving to the hospital. It took the paramedics only 10 minutes to get me to the hospital and they began working on me immediately. A staff of ten were waiting for me at the hospital which was a blessing because I went into cardiac arrest. Once again, if I would have driven myself, I would not have made it.

The day after my heart attack I was still in the hospital and a couple of emergency room employees stopped by my room to let me know that while I was in cardiac arrest, they lost me for 12 seconds. They told me that the heart attack I had was the “Widow Maker” with 100% blockage and only a small percentage of individuals survive this type of heart attack. The cardiologist came by and said that I was extremely fortunate to still be here, and she had hope that I still should be able to live a long life. She mentioned that my toughest obstacle was dealing with the fact that I’m still alive after having a widow maker and being gone for that short period of time.

I truly believe that one of the reasons that the ambulance got me to the hospital in such a short amount of time was that when they were loading me in, I advised the medic that I had five children and to keep me alive. The reason why I mention this now after my heart attack is that one of the paramedics, Josh, stopped by my house to check on me this week. When he had gotten to the house the day of the heart attack and realized how bad of shape I was, him and the other paramedic really pushed the limits on getting me to the hospital because they knew I had children. 65 minutes is all it took from when Josh’s crew came to my home and to when I was out of surgery. That was a key to why I’m still here.

I’m still trying to work through how I survived. I truly believed it was a miracle and that God has bigger plans for me. I would like to thank everyone for their prayers, I definitely needed them and could feel the love.  

“I love the LORD because He hears and answers my prayers. Because He bends down and listens I will pray as long as I have breath! Death had its hands around my throat…Then I called on the name of the LORD ‘Please save me!’ How kind the LORD is! How good He is! So merciful, this God of ours!” Psalm 116:1-4.