Crenshaw Reveals God-Given Miracle That Saved Him from 'Living in a Nightmare' After Eye Injury
Republican Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw said it was a miracle from God that saved his sight after he suffered an eye injury from an IED blast while serving in Afghanistan in 2012.
Crenshaw was a Navy SEAL for 10 years and while serving on his third tour of duty he was blinded by the blast, he told the Christian Broadcasting Network.
“I was blinded right away, I was in a lot of pain, not from my eyes — I just kind of assumed I had dirt in my eyes,” Crenshaw said.
He said he was able to get to a helicopter and was then transported for treatment to Germany.
“They saw my condition and immediately put me into a medically induced coma, sedated me pretty heavily, and I was sedated for I don’t know how many days,” Crenshaw told CBN.
Crenshaw said when he woke up from the medically induced coma he was “hallucinating and blind.”
“It’s a really strange, kind of horrible place to be because I would see Afghanistan all around me and I was just seeing the last place I’d seen and it wouldn’t go away,” Crenshaw told CBN. “I was truly just living in a nightmare.”
Back at home, his family and his wife, Tara, were struggling after learning about the blast.
“We knew that his right eye was gone, we knew that the other eye had been blinded. It was still present but blinded,” Tara told CBN. “I’m very fortunate that I have my faith to carry me through when those times are difficult.”
The doctors’ initial prognosis was that Crenshaw would be blind for life, but Crenshaw refused to accept that, according to his Tara.
“[H]e never gave up — even when the doctor said you’re not going to see again, we’re going to need to get you to a facility where you will learn how to live your life without vision — Dan just didn’t believe it,” she told CBN.
Crenshaw said he was praying for a miracle.
“We were hoping for a miracle and eventually that miracle did happen in the operating room,” he said.
Surgeons were able to save his left eye but discovered a hole in his retina.
“So, we were hoping for another miracle because then the conversation there was do you just let yourself go completely blind slowly and at least you’ll get to see for a while longer, or do we try this surgery out which, your eye is so fragile right now — it’s a really bad idea,” Crenshaw said.
Despite the damage, doctors were able to save his sight.
“Looking back on that, there’s no other way to describe it except God giving me the strength to believe the impossible,” Crenshaw told CBN.
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