A Christmas season miracle

When he went to church on Sunday morning, Roger Duckworth did not expect to earn a new moniker by the end of the worship service: “Lazarus.”

Call what happened that morning an early Christmas miracle or call Roger either the luckiest or most blessed man on Earth.

Either way, you’d be correct.

Roger is a longtime member at Pleasant Ridge Baptist Church and also lends his voice to the choir each morning.

“I felt a little nauseated during Sunday school,” Roger recalled. “But I did not think a whole lot about it.”

The mild nausea continued after Sunday school concluded, and Roger went to the choir room for the warm-up before the service.

“I was OK during the congregational singing and during the choir’s anthem,” Roger continued. “Still nauseous, but nothing too bad.”

Roger settled into his seat as the church’s pastor, Dr. Bradley Johnson, began his sermon. A few moments later, Roger slumped over, unconscious.

Now a word about Roger’s health.

At age 75, he had never had even a hint of heart issues. This is a man who averages 12,000 steps a day (that’s nearly six miles), who walks at least two miles each day, and who begins each morning with a ride on his mountain bike.

And yet, to the horror of the watching congregation, he had fallen over, lost consciousness, and was slipping close to death.

At first, Pastor Bradley was unaware of what was happening just behind him. When deacon Tommy Sain left his seat and headed to the choir area, he knew something was wrong.

“I had never had anything like that happen before,” Bradley said, “where I had to completely stop the service. But I knew immediately that this was a serious, life-threatening situation.”

Roger, however, did not know a thing.

“I was out,” he said. “At one point I could see people bending over me, but that’s all I remember until I was in the ambulance headed to Frye Hospital.”

Roger, unconscious, had no idea of just how “out” he was.

His heart had stopped beating. He had gone into cardiac arrest. He was dying.

Had he been doing his morning walk, he would have died.

Had he been driving, he would have died.

Under a hundred different circumstances, he would have died.

But not at Pleasant Ridge Baptist Church.

Roger was attended to immediately by Coleen Brittain, an emergency department nurse at UNC Health Blue Ridge Morganton, who rushed to the choir area.

Realizing that Roger’s heart had stopped, she began chest compressions.

Another nurse, Angi Pettus, began mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

Despite those efforts, however, Roger continued with no pulse.

And this is where advance planning by Pleasant Ridge, and its security team comes into play.

Several years ago, the church had purchased an Automatic External Defibrillator, a device capable of shocking a stalled heart back into action.

Twice, the machine had to be used on the supine and unconscious Roger. On the second effort, his heart began beating again.

Meanwhile in the pulpit, Bradley did what came naturally to him.

He began to pray.

“I was thinking of two things,” he said, “How to get Roger cared for as quickly and as safely as possible and how to calm the congregation, whatever happened.”

First, Bradley prayed from the pulpit. Then he urged the congregation to gather with family and friends to pray quietly while Roger was being treated.

And behind him, those prayers were being answered.

Roger was stabilizing. Like Lazarus, he had returned from the dead.

“Nothing like that had happened before, so we had not practiced,” said Tommy. “And yet everyone did exactly what they were supposed to do.”

That seamless and timely response was, he said, “A symphony. And God was the conductor.”

And how was “Lazarus” feeling four days after his brush with death?

“I’m doing well,” Roger said Wednesday morning from his room at Frye. “My vital signs are good. I’m just waiting for the doctor to tell me I can go home.”

Roger explained that a stent had to be placed in his heart, but open-heart surgery was not necessary, and his heart seemed to have suffered no permanent damage.

Looking back on what happened Sunday, Roger said, “I could not have been in a better place for that to happen. The key was how quickly everyone responded.”

Roger also said he is looking forward to sharing his story, and his thanks, with the Pleasant Ridge congregation.

“Yes, I plan to be in church on Sunday morning,” he added. “Where else would I be?”

Tommy Sain most always gets the last word in his barbershop, unless Red Warren is around, so we’ll let ol’ Tom have the last word here also.

“I really hope this story will encourage churches and other places where people gather to consider purchasing an Automatic External Defibrillator machine,” Tommy said.

“I’ve read that the survival rate (for victims of cardiac arrest) is 80% with an AED and only 10% with CPR only,” he added.