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Miracle Man dies 11 times before waking up for good
Miracle Man dies 11 times before waking up for good
WAUWATOSA (WITI) -- It is easy to break down someone's life into moments -- some seemingly greater than others. For Bob Jacobs, it was a series of moments that led to him having more.
"I was saved in 1989, I gave myself to the Lord," Bob Jacobs said in late August.
It was that new connection that changed Bob Jacobs' life forever, more than 24 years ago.
"I know where I'm going. And in all of that time since then, I've professed that I was not afraid of death," he added.
Every Sunday, he and his wife Victoria celebrate their faith at Falls Baptist Church in Menomonee Falls.
"We have a special marriage, a very special marriage," Victoria Jacobs said. "It wasn't 2 of us that got married. It was 3 of us. It was the Lord Jesus as a golden cord."
To them, His role in their lives was never more evident than earlier this year. Bob was working at The Home Depot in Wauwatosa, like he has for more than 13 years.
Patrick Hamilton has been his co-worker for the past few years.
"You spend a lot of time under the same roof together and you're kind of in the trenches. You get close." Hamilton said.
However, Patrick didn't realize just how close until lunch time on March 4th.
"One of the associates in back ran up to my desk, breathlessly you know. Does anybody here know first aid?" he said.
Patrick found Bob unconscious and not breathing in the lunch room and began performing CPR.
"In the time I was with him he didn't have anything, then he had a pulse. Then we lost the pulse. And then it came back again." Hamilton said recalling the day.
Minutes later, paramedics from the Wauwatosa Fire Department arrived and took over. Stacey Lueptow, the Deputy Fire Chief was one of the responders.
"He didn't have any pulse. And we continued with CPR," Lueptow said.
Bob was rushed to Froedtert Hospital, losing his pulse and being revived time after time.
Victoria arrived at the hospital and waited for nearly six hours before she saw Bob.
"The gurnee was being pushed in and there was a lot of pumps and hand pumps and people pumping the heart and the lungs by hand to get him to the machine and he was convulsing. Then the doctors hooked him up to the machines real quickly and it was complete life support," she said.
Bob suffered sudden cardiac arrest because of ventricular fibrillation. This happens when the heart's electrical activity becomes disordered. The heart's lower chambers flutter instead of beat, resulting in little or no blood being pumped. Other problems added to the problem according to Victoria.
"There were clots all over. And white matter disease had set into the brain so badly they said, he won't be back. If he does come back at all, he is likely to not be able to be functional. And for sure he will not have his personality," Victoria said.
After being dead 11 different times, Bob was put into a medically induced coma and into ICU for 4 days. After no real signs for improvement, doctors urged Victoria to end life support.
"I said 'okay -- can we wait and see if he wakes up and if he does, how much of him wakes up?'" she said to a group full of doctors. One doctor answered.
"He said we can do that!" Victoria recalls.
The next morning, something changed.
"All of a sudden I'm coming to," Bob said. "I've got all this steel hanging out of me. I've got a carotid pick here. I had 2 picks here. Another one in my leg and you're cold, you're warm, you're full of what's going on here? None of this is good."
Victoria was euphoric, but still cautious.
"When he opened his eyes," she said. "Can I see those baby blues? Then he grinned and everybody said 'oh, he's in there.'"
Smiling she added, "they called him their miracle boy up there that week. And when they sent him down to the cardiac unit, people came from other parts of the hospital to meet the Miracle Man from the Home Depot."
Bob would leave ICU the next day, then the hospital 5 days after that. He finally came home from a rehab center on his 62nd birthday, March 18th.
Bob would spend the next few months resting and recovering from a broken sternum and ribs that he suffered during CPR.
"I feel a sense of responsibility with this. I'm filled with awe," Bob added.
Just over 5 months later, with a defibrillator pacemaker installed to prevent this from happening again, "The Miracle Man From The Home Depot" put his orange apron on again.
Hamilton couldn't believe his friend was back on the job.
"It was kind of emotional. I mean, you saw Bob. It's a heck of a story. I'm glad I was able to help him a little bit," Hamilton said.
Celebrating his return with his co-workers, the first responders and his wife at a lunch time ceremony at The Home Depot, Bob discussed the event.
"I know there's a reason. I've got to see somebody. I don't know who. Maybe it's a lot of people. Maybe it's one person. I don't know but I was obviously persevered for something. I have a much deeper appreciation for what we call life, much deeper," Bob said.