Posted on 09/08/2002 9:44:14 AM PDT by scab4faa
From his fruitless efforts to claw the side of the building to the voice that whispered in his ear, Mark Lawler remembers the fall vividly.
On July 30, 2001, Lawler was working on a cellular antenna atop the roof of an apartment building in Denver when he took a half step too many while taking a measurement.
His knees buckled and he tumbled over a ledge, plummeting 11 stories.
"I was trying to grab back onto the wall like a cat, but I was flailing," the 42-year-old grandfather said in an an interview from his home in Oklahoma this week.
"As I made my first somersault, there was this voice in my left ear. It said, 'You're going to hit the ground, Mark,' and I said, 'I know.' If I'd have turned my head, I'm sure I would have seen someone there, but I was too busy watching the wall go by."
A little more than a year since his miraculous survival, Lawler is certain a guardian angel was standing by that day.
It probably didn't hurt that the building, at 1818 Marion St., is owned by the Catholic Church.
"I guess when you fall off an archdiocese building, you're going to get some luck," he said.
Throughout an excruciating recovery, which has included more than eight surgeries and four months at a rehabilitation center, Lawler has tried to maintain a positive outlook.
"This is the champion fall guy," he quipped as he picked up the telephone. "My family thinks I'm a miracle or something."
Lawler's fall was cushioned by a juniper bush, inches from a steel gas meter and sidewalk.
He remained alert enough to talk to paramedics, but later slipped into a coma.
When he awoke, he was in a room at the Denver Health Medical Center.
Lawler remembers several images during his slumber, including standing behind a surgeon while the doctor cut through his stomach, and talking with a woman who brought him a box in a dream, telling him, "This is from our Lord," he said.
He opened his eyes the next day.
Lawler fractured a disc in his back, shattered bones in his foot, damaged his knee and tore off part of his nose.
"My back is bent and bowed," he said.
"I can walk about 100 yards before I have to sit down before my back goes into spasm, but considering what I went through, it ain't bad."
Lawler was in Denver on contract for his then-employer, Elkins Telecom, when the accident happened.
The company was fined $2,500 by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for training violations.He now lives in his hometown of Wetumka, about 75 miles south of Tulsa, Okla. He spends time with his wife, Trish, and two granddaughters, 6 and 10.
"I really want to give thanks to all the people in Denver for their prayers and their letters," said Lawler, who faces plastic surgery soon. He can reached by e-mail at fallguy@sbcglobal.net.
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US. SPLAT!
Oh - a juniper bush...
Oh wait, that's different. Never mind.
Let's be fair and bipartisan here. He could have just as well fallen and landed on Molly Ivins and survived. Maybe from higher even.
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