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Walk-In Visit to ER Turns Into Fight for Life

On October 15th 2014, Franklin Bradford checked himself into an emergency room.

Franklin says, “I was feeling intense pain in my abdomen area. Once they got me back there I had to have a bowel movement and it was all blood, then everybody's like ‘there's a major problem.’”

Within minutes, Franklin was in critical condition and transferred to Raleigh General Hospital in Beckley West Virginia.

He says, “By the time they got me out of the ambulance and was getting me ready to take me in the door from there I don't remember anything.”

In the ICU, doctors worked to locate the source of the bleeding. But the blood thinners Franklin had been taking for hypertension were frustrating their efforts. Franklin’s son Adam was there.

Adam recalls, “they were gonna come up with a treatment to try to thicken his blood. It wasn't working, though.”

Over the next few days, Franklin continued to have episodes of passing blood. All doctors could do was replenish what he lost, and wait for the blood thinners to wear off.

Adam says, “The doctors come in and they told me, ‘be prepared, this isn't good. We don't know if we can save him.’ I thought I was in a nightmare. I mean, it was a nightmare, and uh I just – I mean, I felt that he just wasn't going to make it.”

Adam remembers, “Family members started getting the information out, then all of a sudden churches were praying, different areas were praying.”

One day, Adam went to the chapel to pray. He was trying to recall a bible verse he wanted to pray for his dad. Then he noticed a bible sitting on the table.

“All of a sudden this voice resonated on the inside of me and said, ‘it's in Ezekiel 16.’ and I picked it up, opened it up, there it was. ‘When I seen you lying polluted in your blood, I said unto you live.' I'm like, ‘this has to be real, this has to be God.’"

Adam returned to the ICU and prayed the scripture over his dad. Later, he had drifted off to sleep when his father’s voice woke him up.

“I'm sitting there and then all of a sudden he starts talking. He started saying, ‘yes lord, I thank you. I thank you for what you're doing right now.’ and my dad concluded saying ‘yes, lord, this will be for your testimony for your greatness.’ and then he went unresponsive again. I knew, I knew deep down inside that-that this was going to be okay.”  

The next morning, Adam discovered Franklin was hemorrhaging massive amounts of blood, and this time it wasn’t stopping. Doctor Brian Whyte was the surgeon called in.

Doctor Whyte remembers, “This guy was literally dying in front of our eyes and we had to do something to save his life. And the only other thing left was surgical intervention.”

Adam remembers, “They’re like ‘if not, he's dead. And more than likely, he's going to die on the operating table, but at least it's a chance that we'd like to take if you'd agree to it.’  And I'm like, ‘yep, you operate.’"

Doctor Whyte says, “We got to the operating room, opened up his stomach. It was a huge ulcer, there was a blood vessel in the middle of it just pumping blood.”

After 4 hours of surgery, doctor Whyte and the team removed the ulcer and repaired the open blood vessel. But there was still a problem.

Adam says, “He kept bleeding. They're like, ‘he's still oozing blood. We can't get it to stop.’"

Doctor Whyte says, “His blood was still thin because of the medication he was taking. So that had to really get out of his system to so he could be okay.”

Franklin was put on blood thickening agents and frozen plasma to get his blood to clot. Over the next two weeks, Adam and others watched and prayed.

“It started working. The bleeding started to slow down the doctors started saying, ‘I think he's going to make it. I think he's going to pull through.’ that was some of the greatest news that you could ever have.”

Franklin says, “The first thing that I could remember is Doctor Whyte come walking in the door, and he said uh ‘there's the man with the nine lives.’"

After weeks of treatment and rehab, Franklin fully recovered.

Doctor Whyte says, “It’s a miracle, yes. He's lucky to be alive. I didn't expect him to survive that one (laughs) and he did.”

Franklin says, “Jesus Christ is awesome. He told me that if-if I trust in Him, He would take care of me.  And He did.  And He does, and He is.

Adam says, “There’s nothing impossible for the lord. Prayer works. He listens.  He listens to your prayers.  Keep praying.”

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