Boat Accident Nearly Takes Man's Life. He Calls Out to God for a Miracle
David Beezer, a high school football coach from San Diego, California, was on vacation with his family on the Colorado River in summer 2016. They were out boating on the water, in familiar territory, but a sand bar had formed just under the surface, and Beezer didn’t see it.
He hit the sand bar at around 40 mph, and within seconds, his life was on a new trajectory.
“So we went from just going full speed, you know, with a boat full of people just having a great time, to zero within just a few feet,” he told CBN. “The full force of the collision was right on my neck.”
“I’d hit the steering wheel right at my voice box and airway. And immediately I could feel it was becoming difficult to breathe. My first concern was my family and my kids. But the inability to really, I physically couldn’t really do anything. Because I was in really bad shape, I knew that I was in trouble.”
Beezer felt his airway start to constrict, and he knew his case was grim. They were out on the water, far from help, and every time they’d tried before, they’d gotten no reception and couldn’t place calls.
“That was the time that, you know, that you really cry out to God and say, you know, ‘I can’t do this. And I’m going to need You to see us through this.'”
“You know, whatever God’s plan was, that I was okay with it and the only way that I could have peace was knowing that I knew Who held my future.”
Thankfully, his wife was able to call for help. “My wife tried to call 911, and we’ve been in that area a lot and could never get a cell phone to work from that area,” he said. “And we tried many times in the past, you know, to call and check on something back home. And never gotten through.”
“That day the phone call immediately went through to 911.”
A sheriff’s boat started to head in their direction to get them to the first responders who were waiting on land, but the boat was still 20 minutes away. Another sheriff who was off-duty but closer took matters into his own hands and struck out on his boat to find Beezer and get him to land.
“Getting me off the water was the No. 1 key to surviving,” Beezer told the San Diego Union-Tribune. “I was starving for air and we were a mile from help.”
“If the sheriff, if the off-duty sheriff that came for me had not come, with certainty I would’ve died on the boat in front of my kids,” Beezer admitted — a difficult thought for any parent.
He was taken to a Yuma, Arizona, hospital. On the way, he texted a church friend to tell him that they’d been in an accident and that while everyone else seemed OK, he was in dire straits.
Later, he found out that while his daughter had gotten a concussion and everyone else was shaken up, no one else was critically injured. Meanwhile, his family and friends all prayed diligently for him.
Not only had Beezer sustained a laryngeal fracture, one of his lungs collapsed and he fainted. “In the ambulance, my lung collapsed,” he said. “I remember telling the paramedics I was taking my last breath. I stopped breathing, and that’s the last thing I remember.”
After intubating him and flying him to another hospital, doctors placed him in a coma for almost a week to give him time to heal.
“The first trauma doctor, when I woke up, he looked at me and said, ‘there’s only one reason you’re alive. G-O-D.’ And I knew it. I had been in that ambulance and I knew that I needed a miracle to make it.”
After making improvements and being released from the hospital, Beezer experienced a setback when he encountered more difficulty breathing and doctors discovered a growth in his throat. As they got ready to take him into surgery, they took one last look at it — but it was gone.
One of the doctors admitted that it was probably “divine intervention,” citing the prayer warriors Beezer had on his side.
“I’m thankful for my friends who rallied for me incredibly,” said the recovered Beezer. “Just the prayers of school family, church family just the outpouring of love. You never really realize how much you’re loved until you go through a situation like this.”
“You know, I think to think I’m a strong person, but there’s times where you know that the game is beyond your level. And this situation was certainly; I knew that I had no role in staying alive. I mean, it was — it was God’s hand and God’s mercy alone that would keep me alive.”
Beezer is certain that the prayers of the faithful and divine intervention were behind his amazing recovery: “God still does miracles.”
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