Posted on 08/07/2013 12:47:09 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o
CENTER, MO. -- Rescue workers want to thank a higher power for coming to the rescue early Sunday morning.
Emergency crews spent an hour and a half trying to extricate a 19-year-old Quincy woman trapped in her in crushed car on Missouri 19 near Center, Mo.
The Missouri Highway Patrol said Aaron Smith, 26, crossed the center line and struck Katie Lentz head-on.
Now, friends, family and those who rescued Lentz would love to find and thank a mysterious priest who they say helped make the rescue possible.
New London Fire Chief Raymond Reed said rescue crews spent the first 45 minutes after the accident trying to get Lentz out of a car to no avail Sunday morning shortly after 9 a.m. The metal on an older model Mercedes dulled the department's equipment.
"It was a very well-built car, and when you compact materials like that one, they become even stronger because you're cutting through multiple things instead of one layer," Reed said.
Reed says Lentz was pinned in between the steering wheel and the seat. After 45 minutes passed, medical workers told rescue crews that Katie was failing and fast. That's when Reed decided to move the car, which was standing on its side, back on all four wheels.
About an hour into the rescue, Katie asked rescue workers to pray out loud with her. That's when a priest appeared out of no where.
"He came up and approached the patient, and offered a prayer," Reed said. "It was a Catholic priest who had anointing oil with him. A sense of calmness came over her, and it did us as well. I can't be for certain how it was said, but myself and another firefighter, we very plainly heard that we should remain calm, that our tools would now work and that we would get her out of that vehicle."
The Hannibal Fire Department showed up right after that prayer with fresh equipment and was able to finish the extrication. After getting Katie safely into the Air Evac helicopter, at least a dozen of the rescue workers turned around to thank the priest who was no where in sight. The highway had been blocked for a quarter of a mile during the hour and a half rescue, leaving no bystanders and no parked cars nearby. Lentz' family and friends are amazed by the story.
"Where did this guy come from?" Lentz's friend Travis Wiseman asked. "We're looking for the priest and so far, no one has seen him. Whether it was a priest as an angel or an actual angel, he was an angel to all those and to Katie."
"We would like to find this gentleman and be able to thank him," Reed said. "As a first responder, you don't know what you're going to run into. We have a lot of tools, and we have intensive training. In this particular case, it is my feeling that it was nothing more than sheer faith and nothing short of a miracle."
Katie has undergone surgeries to repair several broken bones. She is scheduled for more surgeries in the coming weeks, but friends and family say her spirit has not wavered.
The driver of the other car in that accident, Aaron Smith, has been charged with a DWI, second degree assault and failure to drive on the right half of the roadway.
disappearing before the major networks and People magazine got ahold of him
Only God can perform miracles. Humans are not able to suspend the rules of nature and interrupt the chain of causality.
For the flamers: God can listen to someone’s prayers and perform a miracle. Canonization is based on, among other things, someone having interceded with God for the performance of a miracle.
bttt
It’s a long story, but I’ll try to cut it down a bit.
Younger days, driving too fast. For some reason, I decided to stop at a roadside eatery. Finished my meal, got back in my car and took off without buckling my seat belt. I have been a belt user before and since, I almost feel naked without it. On this one occasion, something kept me from buckling the belt, and it was a tricky belt that required two hands to fasten, so I couldn’t do it once in motion, so I decided to wait until I had a chance to stop.
There was a real bad blind curve, and I went into it too fast. The guardrail there was an old style one with heavy wire cables and wooden posts. The car was a convertible with a rollbar.
The nose of the car went under the wire cable, one of the wooden posts came up over the car, punched through the roof. When it was all over, there was a dent in the roll bar directly above the driver’s seat, and a brown scuff on the headrest.
When this happened, I was bouncing around in the car. If I had been buckled in the seat, that post would have hit me right in the face.
Some might say it was just dumb luck, I believe some higher force was involved.
I will... but it’s a bit lengthy...
I was attending a large IT convention in Manhattan. I was on the very back row of a commuter bus taking us from Javitz to our hotel. The bus pulls over to the right in the middle of the block, but the hotel is on the left.
Like ducks parading to the water, ever single passenger got off the bus, walked in front of the bus (my mom always told me not to do this), across the street, and into the hotel.
I was the very last one off the bus. Right as I cleared the side of the front of the bus to walk across the street, just as some 80 people had done before me, I feel a sharp jerk on my backpack which is slung across one shoulder. The jerk is hard enough to spin me around to the right, away from the bus, and for the backpack to slip down to my hand.
My first thought is.. “great, typical NYC... I’m getting my backpack snatched”
As I spin around, I feel something bang hard into my left elbow, which has swung around now, clearing the side of the bus, and it spins me 720 degrees on the balls of my feet. I hear people scream, and tires squealing.
My elbow was struck by the rear-view mirror of a taxicab speeding down the street. Had I stepped out, I would have been flattened.
I am uninjured, and still more worried about the thief, so I look around.
5 PM in Manhattan. People jammed elbow to elbow on either side of the street in both directions, waiting to cross on my block.
The entire sidewalk I am standing on is completely empty of pedestrians. Completely empty, red light to red light.
It is SO obvious that I am meant to know that no one was there.
The other side of the story is that the taxicab driver jumped out of the cab, ran over, adjusted his mirror, and sped off again.
“Only God can perform miracles”
Absolutely true, but sometimes God DOES use human agents, sometimes angels and sometimes He acts Himself.
A finite mind can’t comprehend an infinite God.
W. O. W.
yes, my FRiends ... Angels.
Amazing story. That’s why I love this kind of thread. So many people have just inexplicably felt the hand of Divine Providence.
What a shame you weren’t there.
That's how they roll.
One of my buddy’s kids is a fire dept paramedic.
They seem as afraid of “malpractice” as doctors.
I have a ‘85 MBZ 300D in great shape. Identical to the one in the picture. Still use it on long trips, get about 27 mpg.
I agree, I hope they never find him.
Maybe he fell into a hole??
**Whether it was a priest as an angel or an actual angel, he was an angel to all those and to Katie.”**
Thank God.
What was he The White Rabbit? :) Hope they do NOT find him. Best that he slipped away.
God can work through people.
Ever hear of an exorcist?
Firefighters are trained to do as much damage as possible to the vehicle.
My daughter in law had an accident with my son’s Corvette, that rendered it undrivable due to damage to the cooling system. The fire department refused to allow the towtruck driver to load it on his truck until they had cut the battery cables, which was totally unnessary because lowjack had already disconnected the battery from all parts of the electrical system.
The driver argued with them and they threatened to have him arrested.
They found that that they could not open the hood, so they asked him how to open it. He explained that the lowjack was in control, and that he would have to energize the hood latches through the lighter plug.
When he got it open, he showed them the interlock at the battery that had automatically disconnected it, but they still cut both cables and the radiator hose too, because they thought it was in their way.
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