When young couples tie the knot, they often believe they have many years ahead of them to create their lives and develop together. However, life can be super unpredictable and can surprise you with things you never saw coming!
One Saturday morning in May 2007, Ryan Finley got out of bed and everything felt just like any other day. He checked the clock and thought it was time to wake up his wife, Jill Finley.
He later remembered, “I actually went to wake Jill up, which is pretty surprising because I never do that on Saturday mornings.”
He shouted her name, but she didn’t answer. Feeling shocked, he tried to shake her awake, but she still didn’t respond. That’s when he started to feel anxious and frightened. Ryan quickly dialed emergency services while also doing CPR on his wife.
When the paramedics got there, they hurriedly put her in an ambulance to rush her to the hospital. He drove his truck right behind the ambulance.
When they arrived at the hospital, the doctors checked Jill’s condition and determined that she had experienced a cardiac arrest.
Jill had some important medical treatments to make her better, while Ryan stayed outside the emergency room, getting updates on how his wife was doing from time to time.
When the doctor finally stepped out to talk to Ryan about his wife, he wrapped up by telling Ryan to pray. Ryan understood just how serious things were, saying, “When a doctor says you should start praying, it really hits you that things are pretty bad.”
Not long after, the doctors told Ryan that his wife was in a coma. He was shocked to learn that his vibrant and lively 31-year-old wife was struggling between life and death.
While Jill was in a coma for two weeks, many people came to visit her and Ryan to show their support. One of Jill’s cousins even showed up with a Bible. He spent about an hour reading passages from it to Jill.
He gave the Bible to Ryan and told him he could read any parts he wanted. From that day on, Ryan started reading passages from the Bible to his wife, wishing that she would wake up.
After Jill had been in a coma for 11 days, Ryan decided to go home and spend some time alone. He was really torn about whether he should listen to the doctors and take Jill off life support. The doctors thought that she wouldn’t get any better and recommended that he consider ending her life support.
He understood that this could mean Jill might not have much time left, but the next day he told the doctors to turn off the machines keeping her alive. On the 14th day of her coma, they stopped her life support.
Around five hours after Jill was taken off life support, she began to stir and mumble a little. Ryan couldn’t bear to see what he believed were his lively wife’s final moments, so he went out to the waiting area until she was gone.
He recalls the next moments clearly, “The nurse came out and said, ‘I think you need to come in, she’s talking.’”
He entered the room thinking he would have one last talk with his wife. He remembers, “As soon as I walked in, Jill started talking. The first thing she said was, ‘I need to leave this place. I just want to go home.’”
Ryan couldn’t believe what he was hearing, but he wasn’t sure if she was really awake or just talking in her sleep. So, he started asking her a bunch of questions that only someone fully awake could answer. He wanted to know the names of their pets and threw in some tricky math problems. To his surprise, she got all of them right! Then, she even suggested going to her favorite Mexican restaurant for dinner.
Jill mentioned later that she couldn’t recall the time she spent in a coma; it just felt like she had been gone for a while and then returned. When Ryan was interviewed and asked what he believed helped bring his wife back, he quickly answered, “God. It was divine intervention. I truly believe that.”
After Jill woke up, things didn’t return to normal right away. She had to start over and practice some basic skills, like brushing her teeth and tying her shoelaces, as if she was learning them for the first time.
The couple sees this as a new opportunity for both their lives and their relationship, making sure to stick together no matter what. Jill believes that Ryan did the right thing by taking her off life support because she wouldn’t want to live her life in a way that felt like being a “vegetable.”
Ryan still feels anxious and scared about everything that happened. He always checks to make sure she’s still there with him. He explains, “I wake up every night. I usually give her a little kick, and if she kicks me back, I know everything is alright.”
Sometimes life gives you a second chance as you would never believe! We are so happy that both Ryan and Jill Finley are doing well.
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