We continue our “Healed By Faith” series with a story about a father helping his son.
While that's not unusual the lengths this father had to go to get in touch with his son are. Angels are said to be God's messengers to mankind--a link between this world and another. But, what if the message comes from someone you know? Someone who has passed away? When Gary North of St. Charles had a dream about his friend's Dad he knew he couldn't keep it to himself.
"I dreamt that Kenny and his Dad and I were all working in the shop together. I said what the heck you doing here Sam you're supposed be retired? He says 'Oh kinda bored, and besides I'm worried about Kenny. I woke right up and told my wife about the story," said Gary North. You see Gary worked with Sam and Kenny for years in the shop, but Kenny's Dad Sam had been dead for nine years. "And I never dreamed about him once, but I said I'm going to call Kenny when I get home. He kind of believes in that dream stuff, and different signs that come and that," says Gary.
Gary punched in Kenny's numbers, and when he called Kenny mentioned a strange pain in his back. It was a pain Kenny said had gone away, and that he wasn't worried about anymore. "Then I told him about the dream about his Dad."
"When Gary told me it just sounded like my...that just sounded like Dad. It was like wow, so as soon as I got off the phone with Gary I went over to Med-Express," said Ken Samuels. Doctors at Med-Express couldn't find anything wrong, but they wanted to be sure. Since Ken's own Dad died of a heart attack they ordered Ken an immediate stress test. It suddenly became clear why Ken's Dad needed to send a warning and get his son's attention.
"They told me well you'll have to go to the hospital--don't go home--you have blockage," Ken tells NBC25. "He's so active and how can this happen? That's why I didn't go with him I was confident enough that he was okay," says Ken's wife Patty. A catheterization revealed everything was not okay. In fact it was much worse. "They came out and said you have a 100 and two 90's, and I asked how am I standing here talking to you guys," Ken says.
100 percent blockage in one artery, and 90 percent blockage in the other two. Suddenly Gary's dream became much more. "Like holy cow his dad must have wanted him to know something somehow here," says Gary. "I wouldn't be here. They told me you're lucky to be alive; they said anything could have triggered it."
"It just gives me the chills to this day everytime we talk about," says Patty. Ken underwent life-saving open heart surgery, but it's his father, he says, who is the real reason he's still alive today. "I think about him everyday, and thank him for everything."
"I always thought I wanted to retire someday and enjoy life, but you know what if I wake up in the morning, and I feel good, and I'm going to work, that's good enough for me. That's just the way I feel now," Ken tells NBC25.
Here's something else interesting about this story, Ken's doctors told him he had the blockage for awhile, but his heart had actually formed two collateral bypasses that were going around the blockage. That was keeping him alive, but doctors say he still was not getting an adequate blood supply.
Today Ken thanks his faith and his father for being alive.
