Motorcycle Accident Victim: "I Knew I Was Dead"

On June 9th, 2016 seventy-three year old Gordon was enjoying a motorcycle ride along US Highway 2 near Libby, Montana.  

“I met this oncoming car, a red car, and there was no other traffic on the road,” Gordon recalls. “I was doing about sixty miles an hour, and I would guess his speed about seventy.”

As the vehicles got closer the car crossed over the centerline, hitting Gordon head on.

“I knew I was dead. Right on impact, I thought that was the end of it.  So I called on the Lord, I said, ‘Lord Jesus.”’

Gordon crashed into the windshield and bounced over the car, smashing the sunroof and rear window before going another a hundred and fifty feet down the highway.
“I remember flying through the air and skidding on the ground and then finally coming to a stop,” he recalls. Gordon was dazed, but conscious.

“After I was on the ground for a short time I heard these voices talking. There were two women's voices and a man's voice. They asked if they could pray for me.  I distinctively felt three hands on my back; I felt reassured, I felt safe, I felt comfortable. I didn't want the prayer to end. So they finished praying and I thought, ‘Boy, I'd better thank these people,’ and I turned around and there was no one there.”

Gordon was taken to Cabinet Peaks Medical Center with multiple fractures. By then Gordon’s wife, Karen, had been called and told he was in an accident.
Then she learned he was being airlifted to Kootenai Health Hospital in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, two hours away.  

“And so then I started realizing it was really pretty serious, but at the same time my spirit was really at peace,” Karen says.

Still, doctors were concerned about brain trauma or other internal injuries. Gordon’s surgeon, Dr. Joseph Bowen, explains: “Normally a person who sustained an auto versus motorcycle accident, that trauma can be really severe, you have potential for a lot of internal injuries.”

Eventually, Karen and other family members arrived.

Karen remembers seeing Gordon for the first time after the accident. “He looked pretty bad, it was pretty scary, but all the family came in really, really quickly--a lot of people praying for us.”

Despite the violent impact, Gordon had no head, spine or internal injuries.

“I was very impressed with actually how good he looked, considering,” Dr. Bowen says. “Gordon had sustained a fracture, or a broken bone in his elbow. He had also fractures in his foot and a fracture in his leg around his knee; really the elbow was the most pressing concern at that point.”

Dr. Bowen performed surgery and Gordon made a complete recovery.

“It's a miracle of healing. I think his faith played a tremendous role in his outcome and how well he's done,” Dr. Bowen says.

Gordon and Karen say he’s here today because of God’s love and protection.

“That's miraculous that I'm able to even walk around, or even be here,” Gordon declares. “I believe the Lord just protected me, either directly or through his angels.”  

“I’ve heard a lot about miracles, but that was the first time that we had experienced one that was so overwhelming and so obviously the Lord Jesus protecting him,” Karen says. “People ask how we're doing and I tell them about the accident, they always say, ‘Oh, he must have had a really good helmet.’ No. He had a really good Jesus.’”