The Plain Values Podcast EP #39 – Dead for 35 Minutes and the Miracle That Followed w/ Jimmy & Becky Mast

Becky Mast:
I was shocked six times.

Marlin Miller:
So you did not have a heartbeat for.

Becky Mast:
35 minutes.

Marlin Miller:
That’s insane.

Jimmy Mast:
But they had declared her clinically dead at the hospital before I even got there. They pulled it out and when they did, her eyes open and he goes, “Becky, Becky, say hello.” And she goes, “Hello.”

Marlin Miller:
The fact that Jimmy and Becky masked are still a married couple is a miracle. And I don’t mean that in the sense of divorce. I mean that in the sense of the fact that she’s still alive. We sat down and they told us the story of Becky being dead for 35 minutes, did not have oxygen to her brain at all for 35 minutes and the miraculous journey to a full recovery. Please meet my very alive friends, Jimmy and Becky Mast. And if you like the content, if you get anything out of it, I will very humbly ask you to like and comment and smash that subscribe button. Thank you. This podcast is sponsored by my friends at Azure Standard. A while back, I had a chance to sit down with the founder, David Stelzer, right here at the table and we had a great conversation.
I love the Azure story. They started out as farmers back in the ’70s and I think in 1987 they began a nationwide food distribution company. And guys, they are non- GMO organic. They do it right. They do it so well and you can get a truck to drop food right in your town. Check them out at Azurestandard.com and tell them Marlin and Plain Values sent you.
Jamie and Becky, thank you for coming. I know you came so far. You came so far. What you guys live like two minutes away. Where did you guys grow up?

Jimmy Mast:
I’ll let her start.

Becky Mast:
So I grew up in Sugar Creek on a farm and we had a turkey farm, so I grew up working. My mom taught us good work ethics and in a Christian home.

Marlin Miller:
Were you Amish?

Becky Mast:
No, I went to Maranatha, Maranatha Church.

Marlin Miller:
Big family.

Becky Mast:
I have two brothers and two sisters. There’s five of us and I am second to the youngest.

Marlin Miller:
Okay. Are your folks still alive?

Becky Mast:
My mom passed away, but my dad is still alive.

Marlin Miller:
Jimmy, go.

Jimmy Mast:
I grew up in South Carolina on a farm as well. It was a chicken farm, a poultry farm. Dad wore a bunch of hats. He was a pastor and he was a plumber. He had a poultry farm, owned a bakery and had some rentals in town. So we were busy. I come from a family of six. I was the youngest and yeah, it was just a busy, busy life.

Marlin Miller:
Wow. That is a ton.

Jimmy Mast:
It was a lot.

Marlin Miller:
Bakery. Plumber. Oh my goodness.

Jimmy Mast:
Yeah.

Marlin Miller:
I can’t even imagine. Did you help in the bakery at all?

Jimmy Mast:
Yes. I did that. We were open there Thursday, Fridays and Saturdays, and so I would do mornings and evening shift after school.

Marlin Miller:
Are your folks still here? No, your dad passed. I’m

Jimmy Mast:
Sorry. My father passed away October a year ago. A year ago. A year and two weeks ago.

Marlin Miller:
No kidding. I’m sorry. Were your siblings … Were you as kids close?

Jimmy Mast:
Fairly close. I was obviously the youngest by quite a distance, but yes, I would say we are fairly close. Considering we’re spread out among a number of states and yeah, we have a good relationship.

Marlin Miller:
So how did you guys meet?

Jimmy Mast:
So when I was 16 years old, I drove from South Carolina to Sarasota by myself. Under the scrutiny of my mother, she knew that there was nothing that she could do to hold me back. I had two sisters living in Sarasota at the time and so between Christmas and New Year’s I took off and drove down to Sarasota and was staying at my sister’s house and a bunch of us youth boys. We had some older boys in our group that could get a motel room. And so they got a motel room to watch a couple of the playoff games, college football, the bowl games. And we were out there on 41 between Sarasota and Bradenton and got hungry one night and decided, “Hey, let’s go over to the Pizza Hut.” So we ran across the road, or across 41 into Pizza Hut. And when I walked in, there was these two beautiful girls sitting in a booth by themselves.
I looked at my buddy and I said, “That dark haired one, I’m going to marry her.” No, you didn’t. Yeah, I did. And he was like, “I can’t say what he said here on the air,” but he was like, “Oh, whatever.” He said, “You don’t have what it takes to go. ” And I walked right over to the table and I introduced myself and took Becky out to the beach that night. And from there on, I mean, we didn’t date right away. It was a number of years before we actually dated, but we got exchanged numbers and come to find out I took her home and she’s five houses up from my sister’s house there in Pinecraft. No kidding. And so we made a connection. Back then we exchanged pictures. It wasn’t phone numbers on a cell phone. We didn’t have that back then, but I had a pager that would beep and she would beat me when it was time for me to call her.
So then I graduated high school in 1994 at the age of 17. And in the spring of 1995, in pursuit of her, I moved to Ohio and that’s where I’ve been since. So

Marlin Miller:
You were in Florida at the time on vacation?

Becky Mast:
Yes. We were down there like from Christmas to New Year’s as like youth and there was a whole bunch of youth there and so that was kind of a hangout for us kids to go to at Christmas time.

Marlin Miller:
So did you ever tell her that you said that? Yeah. How quickly did you tell her that you

Jimmy Mast:
Were married? Well, I’m pretty transparent and I got a big mouth so it wasn’t too long after that.

Marlin Miller:
What did you think?

Becky Mast:
I mean, yeah.

Marlin Miller:
Did you know it right away? Did you send-

Becky Mast:
No,

Marlin Miller:
I didn’t.

Jimmy Mast:
No, I had to convince her.

Marlin Miller:
I love it. That is so cool. So you’ve been married for how long now?

Jimmy Mast:
28 years.

Marlin Miller:
28 years.

Jimmy Mast:
Yeah.

Marlin Miller:
Well, you got married young.

Jimmy Mast:
I was 20 and she was 22.

Marlin Miller:
No kidding. Yeah. I think I’m older than you and we’re only married for 23 or 24. Yeah, that’s cool. So can you tell us a litle bit about your family?

Jimmy Mast:
My family, like I said, I grew up on a farm in South Carolina. The economy in South Carolina economically just wasn’t near to what it is here in Holmes County and in this area. We weren’t wealthy by any stretch of the imagination, but we weren’t poor either. We learned how to work hard and make things happen and make ends meet. My oldest, my two oldest sisters live in Florida. My other sister lives in Pennsylvania over in Lancaster County. And then my middle brother lives in South Carolina still and then my oldest brother lives in Canton, Ohio and I live here. So it was a good home life. Yeah. I don’t know what else to expound on that. I mean, it was great. We had a good time growing up.

Marlin Miller:
Yep. You guys have three kids?

Becky Mast:
Yes. And

Marlin Miller:
How old are they?

Becky Mast:
Damon is the oldest. He’s 24. Chloe is this middle child. She is 20 and Mason is the youngest. He’s 13.

Marlin Miller:
13. And Chloe is 20.

Becky Mast:
20.

Marlin Miller:
Okay. I want to bring her back up down the road. Mason’s 13.

Becky Mast:
And Damon is married. He’s

Marlin Miller:
Married now.

Becky Mast:
He’s married and his wife’s name is Krista.

Marlin Miller:
No kidding.

Becky Mast:
And we just found out last week that we’re going to be grandparents. Get

Marlin Miller:
Out of here. Oh man, congratulations. Yeah,

Becky Mast:
We’re excited.

Marlin Miller:
First one.

Becky Mast:
First one. First

Marlin Miller:
One. I love it. Oh my goodness. First

Becky Mast:
Baby.

Marlin Miller:
You guys are going to make, I mean, horrible grandparents. I know. Pray for

Jimmy Mast:
Us.

Marlin Miller:
It’s not going to go well for your grandkids yet.

Becky Mast:
They came over to our house for dinner and they brought a bouquet of flowers and the bouquet was all white and it had a pink and a blue carnation in it. And I was like, when they walked in, I’m like, “Oh, it’s not Mother’s Day.” And then they turned the bouquet and I seen the two little flowers and I’m like, “What, baby?”

Marlin Miller:
That’s so cool. I’m so glad for you. So exciting. That is so cool. You’re a pastor now

Jimmy Mast:
Too. I

Marlin Miller:
Am. How long ago did you become

Jimmy Mast:
A pastor? I became a pastor in 2014, October 4th, 2014 associate pastor and then I was the associate for almost two years and just prior to the two year mark, I became senior pastor at Lightning Valley Chapel.

Marlin Miller:
So that was in 16?

Jimmy Mast:
Yeah.

Marlin Miller:
Tell us about that fateful day when the whole world changed for you guys.

Jimmy Mast:
Yeah. I would love for Becky to tell the story. However, she doesn’t remember anything about it. It’s her story that I get to tell.

Becky Mast:
It’s

Jimmy Mast:
God’s

Becky Mast:
Story.

Jimmy Mast:
It’s God’s story. And I try to steward it the best I can and try to bring back the recollection in its correct form. Before I get started with this story, there’s something I have to say. You’re going to hear me through this podcast tell different things that we did at different times and it’s going to seem like there was a formula to it. I don’t want that to be the perception of this story. It’s not a formula that you can, in other words, start worship music at a certain time, anoint someone at a certain time, pray at a certain time, having a certain amount of people praying at the same time. It’s not a formula that God works in. Each case is different. I’m merely telling the story of what God did for us. And it’s not a formula that you can repeat per se.

Marlin Miller:
All right. I get it. All

Jimmy Mast:
Right.

Marlin Miller:
I think I get it.

Jimmy Mast:
Yeah.

Marlin Miller:
I don’t know that I do, but I think I get it.

Jimmy Mast:
Yeah. So we’ll get started. That fateful day. We’ll start back just a little bit. There was a local pastor who had asked me at that point in time, I was not a pastor. This was in 2013. I was not a pastor. I was a worship leader. I had been a worship leader for almost 13, 14, in between 13 and 14 years. And so guitar was something that I was comfortable with from a little boy up playing guitar and singing. So that was my comfort.That was something that I could just do. And so local pastor reached out to me and said that there is a prison crusade that’s going to be happening over in Pennsylvania. There’s a ton of prisons that get visited in that certain weekend. It’s usually the weekend before Easter, I believe, or after Easter. It’s right in that time. And he had reached out to me probably four or five months prior to that and scheduled me and my buddies or my worship group to go over to Pennsylvania and sing at some prisons.
And so we had committed to that. We had scheduled that. We left here on Thursday and went over to College Station, Pennsylvania for the orientation. There was about 300 volunteers, give or take, that met over in College Station, Pennsylvania. And from there, we were dispatched out to the various prisons of which we were going to spend the weekend at. And then we had booked a worship service in Lancaster County at a community church there for Sunday evening thinking that we would be closer to Lancaster County than what we were. Once we left College Station on Thursday, we were dispatched over to a prison just west of Pittsburgh and it’s one of the oldest working prisons in the state of Pennsylvania and that’s where we were scheduled to go. And so we did. We went in, set up everything on Friday. Friday evening we had our first worship service.
Saturday we had a couple workshops for different prisoners or different subjects like forgiveness and grace and faith. We had different workshops that we split out into different groups to study. And then Saturday evening we had another worship service and then we ended it on Sunday morning. And from there we drove east to Lancaster County about five hours. We didn’t realize it was that far, but we had already committed to it. So we set up in this community church, did this worship service on Sunday night and drove all the way home from Lancaster County, got back to light in the Valley Chapel, the home church there. We had all parked their car pulled from there. Got back there at 4:00 AM on Monday morning, April the 15th and this would have been 2013, grabbed our stuff and each man went to their house and I got home.
It was about 20 after four. Well, I had been up almost 24 hours at that point. So I jump in the shower and just kind of threw my luggage in the bathroom like irresponsible adult males do and just kind of left myself- Can I answer? Yes, you may.

Becky Mast:
So there was a man at the prison that gave you a note.

Jimmy Mast:
Yeah.

Becky Mast:
Do you want to put that in?

Jimmy Mast:
Yeah. That was on Saturday evening. I had one of the prisoners that you have very little time in those services. You have very little time in those settings to make a connection, but it almost always happens that you make a connection with someone just instantly. And there was this guy who I had him in my breakout session of forgiveness Saturday afternoon and he came up to me after I led worship. I went and sat down to listen to the pastor bring the message. He came over to me and he goes, “Hey man.” And he puts his arm around me and he hands me a little three by five index card and it had folding hands on it like almost like a duplicator back in the day when we would do the hand crank duplicator, you know what I mean? And it looked like that type of print and then it had a calligraphy style word on it said prayer request.
And then ink he wrote down a Bible reference and he handed it to me. I look at it. I said, “Oh man, thank you, man.” And he’s hugging me like they do and I stick it in my Bible and I never looked at it again over that weekend. And so we pack up Sunday, head over to Pennsylvania, come home. It’s 4:20 AM. I climb into bed with Becky and she said, “Hey.” She said, “Is it all right with you if the kids have really missed you since Thursday? Is it all right with you if they wake you in the morning?” And I said, “Yeah, absolutely.” So I remember first Damon came into the room on Monday morning there and of course I was pretty tired and pretty groggy and I gave him a hug and told him I love him and he went off to school and then Chloe, she came in, she would have been five years old.
She was seven. Seven at the time. Damon was 12 at the time. Chloe was seven at the time. So she comes in and says hi and bye and off to school they go. And I remember I had put my phone on vibrate, which I do when I go to bed, but instead of laying it on my nightstand, I laid it on the floor so that the vibration itself wouldn’t wake me up.
So a little bit later Becky is doing laundry and at that point in time, our laundry room was all the way down the basement. So three floors down the master bedrooms upstairs and soon after that I had drifted back off to sleep and she came up and sat Mason, who was seven months old at the time, right by my head or face and I’m hugging him and kissing him and doing daddy stuff with the baby that I haven’t seen since Thursday. And meanwhile, she’s running up and down the stairs with laundry baskets and doing her Monday morning chores and soon as she comes in and she goes, “Honey, my sisters and I are going to Amish door, which is in Wilmont, five minutes that way, right? Five minutes north.” And she goes, “I want you to stay in bed and I want you to sleep till I get home.” She was like, “You’ve had a rough weekend, please just sleep.” And I said, “Well, we have a tax appointment out in Millersburg.
It’s April 15th, right? We got to do this. ” And she said, “You stay in bed and maybe when you get up, we’ll go out then. I’ll make sure and wake you when I get home.” Well, the clock was running and next thing I know, I kind of wake up out of my sleep and I hear voices and I couldn’t quite determine where they’re coming from and what’s going on and I’m roll back over and slap right and all of a sudden I wake up and you have to, if you want to envision this, but this is how it was, this is a little transparent, but I’m under the covers at a 12 o’clock position like you normally would sleep head on the pillow under the covers laying in a king size bed, right? Becky is now on top of the covers, just got home from eating with her head and her hands like this.
I’m laying on

Becky Mast:
My stomach.

Jimmy Mast:
She’s laying on her stomach.

Becky Mast:
I’m laying

Jimmy Mast:
On my

Becky Mast:
Stomach like a tea, Jimmy’s this way and I’m this way. And the baby’s downstairs sleeping in the playpen.

Jimmy Mast:
Yeah. He’s in a playpen downstairs sleeping and I asked her, “Where’s Mason?” And she told me and then I asked her who was here and she states the lady’s name, which is the same as her sister. And so my mind just went, “Oh, well, that was her sister coming.” She said, “Rita was here.” And that was her sister that stopped in after they were done at Amish Door and she had text me while she was at Amish Door and asked, she sent me a picture of what she was eating. She had stuffed French toast that morning, I still remember and she’s like, “Would you want one?” And I’m like, “No.” Well, I didn’t find the text till after the episode, right? So she comes in and she’s laying there with her hands or her head in her hands. She’s looking at me and she wakes me up and I’m like, “Hey, hey.” She’s like, “It’s time to get up.” I said, “Honey, what time is it?
” And she looks down at her watch or at her phone and she said, “It’s 11:20.” And I’m like, “Oh.” Well, about that time I see her texting and then she sticks her phone in her back hip pocket of her jeans and I’m still just groggy and back and forth in and out, just waking up slow. And all of a sudden she said, “Honey.” I said, “What?” And she goes, “Love me. ” And I said, “Oh, baby, you know I love you. ” And I reached over to kiss her and as I did, her head flew out of her hands and it landed here by my waist.

Marlin Miller:
Was she still lying?

Jimmy Mast:
She was still lying about my stomach and stomach. I was on her stomach. We had had somewhat of her conversation back and forth. She had gotten some new clothes. She had got a new outfit and she had been in the bathroom and taken a picture of it and sent it to one of her best friends. And that was what the texting back and forth was, how good that looked. And I don’t know what ladies say in that situation, but that’s what that was back and forth. And that’s the text that I seen her pull her phone out. When her head hit me in my waist, I was like, “Back, back, come on. ”

Marlin Miller:
Was it a natural?

Jimmy Mast:
It just, boom, just the head flew out of the hands

Marlin Miller:
And

Jimmy Mast:
Her

Marlin Miller:
Head just went down.

Jimmy Mast:
Right down on my waist and I’m like, “Back.” And I remember hearing this sound of sort of a gurgling sound. And so I pick her head up and when I did, I realized something was drastically wrong. Her face was blue, instantly blue and I was like, “Back, back, back, back.” You said

Becky Mast:
My lips

Jimmy Mast:
Turned- The lips were purple, black and there was saliva coming out of her mouth running down her chin and I’m like, “Beck, back, back, what in the world?” And it just …

Marlin Miller:
You’re not groggy

Jimmy Mast:
Anymore. I’m not groggy anymore. And so I reached down, got my phone and I dialed 911. I had never seen her in this state before. I had never seen anyone in this state before. And so I dialed 911.

Becky Mast:
But didn’t you

Jimmy Mast:
Run around the bed? I ran around the bed and rolled me over. And rolled her over. And then I seen that it was … Then I grabbed my phone, dialed 911 and

Becky Mast:
You also seen that I had already wet my pants

Jimmy Mast:
My

Becky Mast:
Jeans were wet.

Jimmy Mast:
I don’t know much about medicine, but I know that’s not a good sign and it’s one of the last things that a human being does when they pass. And so I knew we were up against something major, dialed 911 and the 911 operator asked me some questions and I was trying to get her pulse here in the neck and then I tried on her wrist and there was just nothing there. And so she was asking me how she’s looking. I still have the 911 call on my phone and she asked me a couple questions. She said, “Well, can you pick her up?” And I said, “Yes, ma’am, I can. ” And so she had me lay her on the floor, tilt her neck back and started … She proceeded to step me through CPR. I had never done CPR before. I had never dialed 911 before and that’s where I started doing CPR.
And in the meantime, the call goes out. And of course we live just north of Weinsburg. And so between Mount Eden Road and Weinsburg, fire station’s right here and one of the EMTs that was on call that day was a local farmer who lived out Long Necker Road and he recognized the house number and so he was on his tractor and he brings his tractor into our yard and ran upstairs and in between compressions and different things that I was doing on CPR, she would tell me, “Now go downstairs and open the door, now come right back.” And she was directing me all around the house doing different things and I’d come back and do CPR.
That phone call went out at 11:35 AM, the 911 call, 11:35 AM. And so the Amish gentleman who was on call came first before the squad even got there, he was there with his tractor. He ran in and he goes, “I’ll take over.” He told me later he didn’t know if I was making out with her or was actually doing CPR because I wasn’t doing it correctly, but God had enough faith in me to do it enough, right? Correct enough. And so he took over with CPR and I remember I ran downstairs to check on Mason and he was still sound asleep in the playpen and the squad shows up and those moments were a little bit, they’re still a little bit blurry for me. But I remember the very first EMT, it was a lady ran in the door and she had these paddles of this defibrillator machine and I heard the defibrillator go off.
I heard them call it clear and I could hear everything. In the meantime, I’m calling her sister and just trying to like, “What’s going on? I’m still trying to gather my bearings, so to speak, like what’s going on here?” And I had watched Baywatch. I figured they’ll shock her and she’ll be making supper by that night, right? I mean, that’s how those shows end. Well, I didn’t realize the magnitude of what was going on and they shocked her three times in the bedroom, which is usually a protocol.That’s what the max is. It starts damaging their heart after those three shocks. They did that three times in the bedroom, could not get her heart restarted and it was in what they call a V-fib. And so your heart is basically just sitting there shaking like a pile of jello. It’s not constricting. Does that make sense?
Yeah. And so then they put her on a stretcher board and maneuvered her down over the stairs and into the squad and that’s where they said, “Since she coded, I can’t ride along.” And so by that time, the phone calls had been going around. Family knew it. My pastor at the time knew it and of course prayer chains started to get started and there was requests for Becky’s healing. We didn’t know what was wrong. And I remember one of the EMTs, local ladies said, “I’ll drive you out to Joel Pomerine.” That’s where the squad was headed. And in between Weinsberg and Berlin, they needed a licensed EMT so that he could administer drugs and it’s sort of a, I don’t know what the name of the drug is, but it’s sort of like an adrenaline type drug that they administer via IV and of course they were breathing for her with this big tube and a big pump and he met the squad close to Plumber John’s out here on 62 and that’s where he pulled off and ran over and got in the back of the squad.
And when he got in there, he said, “Everybody stop everything. Just stop.” So they quit breathing for her. They quit doing CPR. They quit it all and he said the monitor just sat there shaking. There was just nothing there.
And they had shocked her five times already at that point. So he administered a drug right away. They had set the IV prior to him getting in the squad and he administered this adrenaline type drug and said, “Shock her one more time.” And when they did at 12:10 PM, 12:10 PM, they have it marked down as the very first registered heartbeat came back.

Becky Mast:
That was after six shocks.

Jimmy Mast:
That was after the sixth shock.

Becky Mast:
I was shocked six times.

Marlin Miller:
So you did not have a heartbeat for-

Becky Mast:
35 minutes.

Marlin Miller:
That’s insane.

Becky Mast:
I know.

Marlin Miller:
I don’t even know. Did you tell me that she was declared?

Jimmy Mast:
So when they got to Joel Palmerin, obviously there was a frenzy of nurses and doctors running around and they had, at that point in time, we couldn’t get her pupils to dilate anymore. So even though her heart was now starting to had just come back a little bit, her ejection fraction, which you and I and us standing or sitting Here right now, our ejection fraction would measure out to be between 50 and 60.

Marlin Miller:
What is that?

Jimmy Mast:
The ejection fraction is the measurement of the bottom part of your heart. So the bottom part of your heart is larger than the top part of your heart. This is just me, what I’ve learned and I don’t declare to be medical at all. But the top part will bring the blood in 40%. The bottom part pushes out 60%. That’s your ejection fraction.What’s pumping out to supply blood to the brain, to the organs, to the limbs.

Becky Mast:
They call it your EF.

Jimmy Mast:
That’s called the EF, the ejection fraction. Her ejection fraction was measured at eight.

Marlin Miller:
Oh my goodness.

Becky Mast:
I thought they said seven.

Jimmy Mast:
Seven and eight.

Marlin Miller:
Seven. So she’s getting-

Jimmy Mast:
Nothing.

Marlin Miller:
Barely any blood to your brain.

Jimmy Mast:
No.

Marlin Miller:
You’re not getting oxygen to anything because nothing’s moving.

Jimmy Mast:
The only thing that she had gotten to that for the first 35 minutes was whoever had administered CPR. That was the only thing that had moved enough blood along to supply anything. And so normally within the first 90 seconds of someone’s heart stopping, the brain starts to decay and it starts to just to go away. And so obviously there was huge concerns of brain damage because of 35 minutes. I didn’t realize this, but the journey was just beginning. But they had declared her clinically dead at the hospital before I even got there.

Becky Mast:
So you were at Berlin in the minivan going to Joel Pomerine when your driver got the call that-

Jimmy Mast:
They got it restored.

Becky Mast:
They

Jimmy Mast:
Got

Becky Mast:
A

Jimmy Mast:
Measurable

Becky Mast:
Heartbeat.

Jimmy Mast:
Yeah.

Becky Mast:
And that was at 12:10

Jimmy Mast:
According to the documents.

Marlin Miller:
What goes through your mind? I can’t even imagine. I can’t even relate in anything.

Jimmy Mast:
So it was interesting because being at Millersburg, we knew quite a few of the staff there, including the doctor. And so that made it a little bit more … Looking back, it was more comfortable for me. Obviously I could say exactly how I feel and-

Becky Mast:
One of my good friends was in ER when I came in.

Jimmy Mast:
Yeah. Really? So it was hard and yet I look back and it was the way that God had designed it that day. But we weren’t there long before they actually … We would open her eyelids manually and shine a light in it to try to get her pupils to dilate. They said if they can get Becky’s pupils to dilate any, they can then put her on- They

Becky Mast:
Can move me.

Jimmy Mast:
They can move her via-

Becky Mast:
Because they said, “I’m going to have to move on from Joel

Jimmy Mast:
Pomerant.” With Life Flight. And they weren’t willing to put her on Life Flight unless the pupils dilate.

Marlin Miller:
Sorry. Pomerine is not a traumatic

Jimmy Mast:
Center

Marlin Miller:
At all.

Jimmy Mast:
Not at all. And super grateful and forever grateful.

Becky Mast:
While I was there,

Jimmy Mast:
But they

Becky Mast:
Were going to send me on.

Jimmy Mast:
And so Life Flight, they were called and of course Joel Pomerine does not have a helipad at the facility, which is something we need to change here in Holmes County. They loaded her back into the squad and transported her out to the fairgrounds where the chopper met us there. And then of course I took offense to it, but they said, “Hey, we just filled up with fuel. You’re going to make it too heavy.” And I’m like,

Marlin Miller:
“I’m not

Jimmy Mast:
That big of a … ” And deep down inside, I knew that was not the real reason that I wasn’t allowed to fly along, but they flew her to Altman. And then my pastor had met me at Joel Pomerine and he drove me from Joel Palmerin up to Akron to Altman. I actually beat her into the room.

Marlin Miller:
No kidding.

Jimmy Mast:
I beat her into the room. So by the time they got her in and got her all switched over from transporting machines to regular machines, I mean, it was a big deal. But before she ever got to the room, the doctor up there came in and he said, “Are you her husband?” And I said, “Yeah.” And he goes, “This is above us. She has no blockage in her heart. Doesn’t look like her valves are bad, but even if it needed a new valve, we’re not going to be capable of doing that here. We’re going to go ahead and make a call to Cleveland Clinic.” And so that particular, that took … Well, we got to, it was 12:10. I bet it was three. Time has a way of getting away from me, but I bet it was after three when they made that call that they’re going to go to Cleveland Clinic.
And we did not get to the Cleveland Clinic, settled in. I did not get to see her until about 2:00 AM from that time.

Marlin Miller:
How did Altman know that the valves were good? There was no blockage. How did they know

Jimmy Mast:
They were- They were continually doing tests and I believe they even did tests and route.

Marlin Miller:
In the chopper.

Jimmy Mast:
Wow.

Marlin Miller:
So they get to Altman, you meet her there. Did they bring her into the room? Uh-huh. So you’re with her and in how little time did the doc come in and say, “Hey?”

Jimmy Mast:
He met me in the room before she got there and he said, “This is a case that I don’t think … ” Because I guess while they were doing some switching of machines and things like that, he had declared or found out that it was going to be above his capability there at Altman. But it

Becky Mast:
Was long enough time from Joel Pumerine to Altman that my kids came to Altman, right? We all

Jimmy Mast:
Met in Altman. There was

Becky Mast:
Church people there. There was family there. My kids were there because I remember, and I don’t remember anything. I just remember hearing this story so many times that I kind of understand or remember a little bit, but Damon, my oldest, was videoing me as they took me down the hall to Life Flight mean

Jimmy Mast:
To Cleveland. Yeah. And that would have been between 9:00 and 10:00 PM. It took that long.

Becky Mast:
And this happened in the morning at 11:30, 11:35.

Marlin Miller:
So your heart is after that sixth shock it’s starting. Did it get stronger as the day went on or was it still just kind of hanging off?

Jimmy Mast:
It hung around like that for about 24 hours, probably just really weak. We didn’t know which way it was going to go. Obviously with nothing against the medical field, but I mean, they had painted the pretty grim picture of what the reality is going to be. By Wednesday morning, this happened on Monday. Tuesday was not a good day. It was not a good day. It was a necessary day, not a good day. Every morning there was a team of 12 doctors that would come in and give the prognosis. Tuesday morning wasn’t good. Pretty much it’s a good chance she won’t make it out of here.

Becky Mast:
Well, they said like two minutes without oxygenated blood to your brain, you can be

Jimmy Mast:
Brain dead.

Becky Mast:
Yeah. And this was 35 minutes. So it was like the chances.

Jimmy Mast:
The one thing that they had administered back at Altman was what they call a hypothermia treatment and where they take the body and they inject a paralytic and they actually put her face in a vice so that nothing would move. And then they inject this paralytic and it completely paralyzes them. And then the other thing that they do is at Altman they had these cooling tubes. They were maybe 18 inches by three inches round, something like that. And they would put it under her armpits in her crotch area and then they put these leggings on that would cool the body down. And so I had to actually sign a paper giving them permission to do that. But the reason that they did it was paralyze her so that there’s no movement requiring brain function. Even a smile they said can take brain function. It takes brain function to smile.
They don’t want her smiling, they don’t want her moving. They need her to be completely still. And then they’re going to take her body temperature and drop it all the way down almost seven, eight degrees, which is pretty dangerous, but they drop that down so that it preserves any brain mass that’s there. And I didn’t realize the magnitude of that either, but I signed off on it because that’s what they had advised me to do and they were like, “It’s the only way that we can tell or preserve what’s left.” And so on Wednesday morning, I’ll never forget the prognosis came back. 12 doctors came in and they said, “Since Monday from here down, we can do a heart transplant. It’s a major procedure, but vitally her organs are kicking back in and because they were pulling fluids off of her body, off of her organs, they had been shutting down.
That was back at Millersburg already.

Marlin Miller:
Really?

Jimmy Mast:
And he’s like, you know what? The kidneys are functioning good. The lungs are looking good. The heart’s not, but we can put a new heart in. But from here up, we’re really, really concerned.” And so they shaved part of her head and put neurological leads on her head. They had 32 neurological leads stuck to her head and she had audio recorded and video recorded room there at the ICU.

Becky Mast:
I

Jimmy Mast:
Was

Becky Mast:
In the largest room that

Jimmy Mast:
Cleveland

Becky Mast:
Clinic had.

Jimmy Mast:
And at that point in time, I counted, I think there was 13 different IV bags hanging and she wasn’t breathing on her. She was on the highest form of life support that the Cleveland Clinic had. And Wednesday, the prognosis, they came in and said, “From here down, we can fix, but from here up, we’re just not

Marlin Miller:
Sure.” Did that bring a sense of hope or were you still in that, oh my.

Jimmy Mast:
I remember pacing the floor back and forth and just saying why That was the only word that would come to my mind. Why? Why? Lord, why? And the reason that was such a big question for me was because prior to all of this, years ago we had marriage problems, major marriage problems, to the point where you know what? It was the week of her moving away and it was a week of us separating. I was an alcoholic for many years and God healed me of that and then he healed our marriage and now things are really good. They’ve not been good very long, but they were good for the last year and a half. And now why are you doing this now? Why didn’t you do this when we weren’t getting along, right? It’s like those are the thoughts that just a human being would have.
And I was pacing back and forth and just saying-

Becky Mast:
But you were also thankful that he didn’t have anything hidden from me when I am dying. He was glad that there was nothing hidden. He

Marlin Miller:
Had a clear conscience.

Jimmy Mast:
Right. And so all of a sudden the nursing staff comes in and it’s this family PR person. Her name was Grace. I’ll never forget her as long as I live. And she said, “Jimmy, the reality is if she does get out of here, she’s going to be highly handicapped and I would like to have the name of the nearest nursing home so that we can start making arrangements for her to go there.”

Marlin Miller:
So they’re assuming all, I shouldn’t say all, but they’re assuming-

Becky Mast:
The

Marlin Miller:
Worst. … massive, massive effects. Repercussions. Yeah.

Becky Mast:
Yeah. Because I mean, if you follow medicine, if you follow what normal, what happens at the hospital, I probably won’t be normal.

Marlin Miller:
Well, my dad had a heart attack and was without oxygen for 10 or 12 minutes. They put him on ice like they did you and he passed and he didn’t … And they said the same thing that they could keep the body alive, but the brain was the issue and it took them. And so I get it to a degree, but 35 minutes, I cannot even fathom. So she says, “Prepare for massive

Jimmy Mast:
Therapies,

Marlin Miller:
Everything.”

Jimmy Mast:
And you’re going to have to get a room at one of our housing places.

Becky Mast:
Well, and she said, “If you don’t, your house is going to have to be handicapped. Everything’s going to have to change at home.”

Marlin Miller:
Right. Yeah. And by the way, just for context here, when this happened 13 years ago, 14 years ago, you were how old?

Becky Mast:
I was 37.

Marlin Miller:
You were 37

Becky Mast:
Years old. 37 years old and my baby was seven months.

Jimmy Mast:
Wow.

Marlin Miller:
Okay.

Becky Mast:
So

Jimmy Mast:
She tells me that she wants the number to the nursing home and here’s some forms that we can get you some really discounted rates for staying here for the … And I said, “Well, how long do you suppose?” And she goes, “Three to six months for rehab.” And I’m like, “Okay.” I said, “Well, put that paper over there on the shelf.” And she goes, “Don’t you want me to help you fill it out? ” I said, “No, I’m not going to be here that long.” And she said, “Oh, well, let me tell you, if she does pull through, it will be that long.”

Marlin Miller:
Almost with an attitude.

Jimmy Mast:
Yeah, with an attitude. And I said-

Becky Mast:
But I think by that time, Jimmy also had an attitude. I mean, this was a while after

Jimmy Mast:
Actually- No, Wednesday. But

Becky Mast:
It happened in Cleveland Clinic.

Jimmy Mast:
Then she said, “Well, can I have the number to the nursing home? Can I have a contact? What’s the name?” And I said, “I’m not giving that to you. ” And then she said, “Why not? ” And I said, “Because she’s not going to a nursing home.” And she said, then she got a little sassy and Becky’s sister, Rita, was there with me and she got a little sassy and she said, “I am here to do my job and you’re not allowing me to. ” I said, “Put that paper over there with that other one.” I said, “Are you a believer?” And she said, “I am.” I said, “Well, I believe God’s going to heal her.” And I said, “If that’s the case, I can’t fill those papers out because if I fill those papers out, it gives the enemy the option of keeping her here for six months like you’re saying.
I’m not saying it’s a bad thing to keep her here for six months, but we’re not going to be here for six months.” I said, “God’s going to raise her up out of here.” And she said, “Well, I am a believer, but the reality is your wife will be highly handicapped for the rest of her life. The best case scenario is wheelchair and an oxygen pump, a tank, best case.” She goes, “That’s the reality.” She’s like, “And if you want her at home, is your house handicap accessible?” I said, “No.” She said, “Do you have $100,000 to revamp the house and reconstruct it to make it handicap accessible?” Most people don’t. Do you have that kind of money? Because she’s going to need nursing care. Do you have the kind of money that it would take to bring in a nurse full-time because you’re going to need it.
You’re going to have to hold a job, you’re going to have to go to work, you’re going to have to supply for your kids. And she was giving me this whole thing. I said, “Put those papers on that shelf. I’m not ready for that. ” I said, “I’m going to give God the opportunity first.” And she said, “Well, the faster we can get this process started, the better off you’re going to be. ” So Wednesday, right after she left, I get a text from a local pastor and he-

Becky Mast:
Insert. So what I was diagnosed with, they diagnosed me at Joel Pomerine and you should also explain what that is.

Jimmy Mast:
Well, they diagnosed it as a postpartum cardiomyopathy, which would mean an afterbirth enlargement of the heart.

Becky Mast:
And it usually happens from newborn to three months and at the time my baby’s seven months. So it’s kind of like he was older than what normal it happens. So that’s what they-

Jimmy Mast:
And a lot of times it’s a sudden thing to where there’s no hope, right? They’re just gone. They’re gone. They’re

Becky Mast:
Just gone. And if this happens, how many-

Jimmy Mast:
There was numbers that I don’t want to … He gave me the odds- Of making it. I’m not going to repeat them because I kind of have an idea where they’re at. It was in the hundreds of thousands that they would actually make it and live a normal life.

Becky Mast:
So

Jimmy Mast:
That’s what

Becky Mast:
They said at Jewel Pomerine. So that’s what Jimmy kind of went with.

Jimmy Mast:
Right. I get a text from a local pastor here in Holmes County. I know him, don’t know him well, know him well enough that he was concerned. And by the way, we started a Facebook page for Becky on Tuesday because if I remember right, I had over 400 incoming texts the first 24 hours wondering about Becky’s condition. And so we started a Facebook page. It was called Becky’s Praise and Prayer Page. And that was started Tuesday evening and it was hosted by one of her best friends. And so we decided that every day towards evening, afternoon and evening, she would call me, get the latest, and then we would post it on Facebook so that my phone wouldn’t blow up. So I took my phone and started worship music and I laid it right by Becky’s head. That was on Tuesday already.

Becky Mast:
On my pillow

Jimmy Mast:
At the

Becky Mast:
Hospital.

Jimmy Mast:
By her. Yeah. Yeah, just really cool stuff. The music, I could go on and on just about the worship set that was playing, but we started that page on Tuesday night and then Wednesday I get this text and he asked me how Becky’s doing and of course the prognosis wasn’t good. And so I text back, I said, “She’s holding her own. However, it’s not real, real good.” The next text from him was, “Have you considered anointing her according to James chapter five?” What does it say there? And so I look, I pull my Bible app up and it says, “If any be sick among you, let him call for the elders to come and anoint and lay hands that they may be healed.” Marlon, is it that simple? “Well, it is when your wife’s on her deathbed, right?
It is when you’re up against, right? And so I make a phone call to one of my pastor buddies who lived in Canton and I said,” Would you be available to come and anoint Becky this afternoon? “And immediate text back,” I’ll be there. “Well, at about 20 minutes after 3:00 PM on the same day that the prognosis was not good, brain waves aren’t … In fact, we’ve been recording these neurological, there’s no movement. When we go to warm her body back up and take the machine off, they explain it to me like it’s going to be like rebooting a computer or it’s like going back to kindergarten and working your way back up through the elementary into the middle school and maybe graduate, but probably not because of the supposed damage to the brain of that long without oxygenated blood, right?
And so Wednesday afternoon at about 20 after three, we walked back into the room, me and two other men, an elder from his church and him and he said,” Read James chapter five, verses 13 through 17. “And so I did and he anointed Becky. I was 36 years old and that was the second time ever in my life that I had seen an anointing. And by 6:30 PM, three hours and 10 minutes later, three hours and 10 minutes later, the worship song that was playing was one of our favorite songs. It came on and it was right by her head. And we used to take that song and I don’t know if you have these songs that you and your wife connect with, but we took that song and we would jam with it and we’d play it and there was a certain place where it would build up, build up, build up and then drop out again.
And it was just like, and the name of the song was Waiting Here for You. It was sang by Jesus Culture and Martin Smith from Delirious, one of our favorite songs because we had a relationship with the Jesus Culture band. That’s all we listened to in our home for probably three or four years straight with Jesus culture.

Becky Mast:
Well, and that Jesus culture was also something that we leaned on when we were like struggling in our marriage. I would just play that on the TV and it would be Kim Walker Smith is an amazing singer and I loved her vocals. And so I mean, that was just a part of our life right now, just listening to those songs and those words.

Marlin Miller:
So three hours goes by

Jimmy Mast:
And as that song was playing, I see a tear roll out of Becky’s right eye down her cheek and I ran out and got the RN. I said,” You got to come here. You got to see this. “And by now me and him have had-

Becky Mast:
It was a male nurse and

Jimmy Mast:
Jimmy

Becky Mast:
Enjoyed … I mean, he connected with

Jimmy Mast:
Him. He was a good dude.

Becky Mast:
Yeah.

Jimmy Mast:
He’s still a good dude.

Becky Mast:
Yeah.

Jimmy Mast:
And 13 years later, he’s still a really good dude. Yeah,

Becky Mast:
We’re friends with him.

Jimmy Mast:
I went out and got him and I said,” Hey man, you need to come in here. “He said,” What’s going on? “I said,” This is her favorite worship song and it’s like eight minutes long when you do it Jesus culture style, right? “And it’s still playing by the time he comes in. And I said,” She had a tear run down her face. “And so he checks her out, he wipes her face and what you could see. There’s very little showing and he just looked at me and he goes,” Jimmy, I’m so sorry, man. “He said,” I’m so sorry. “He said,” I put moisturizer in her eyes about 20 minutes ago and that was just the excess moisturizer. “He said,” She would not be capable of crying right now.

Marlin Miller:
“So the hope is just totally washed, gone.

Jimmy Mast:
So he leaves the room. His shift ends at 7:00, 7:00 to 7:00. He’s been with me all day. I don’t leave her side. I look around and make sure he’s gone. I grabbed my phone and I went to YouTube and I played it again.

Becky Mast:
But you had told him he has to listen.

Jimmy Mast:
Not yet.

Becky Mast:
No?

Jimmy Mast:
Not yet.

Becky Mast:
Okay.

Jimmy Mast:
Not yet. So I went back, I got it connected to YouTube and I played it again and I said,” Beck, I said, “This is your favorite song. If you can hear it, blink your eyes.” And as it got started and as the buildup started, all of a sudden I seen her eyelids move and I’m like, so I did it again. I said,

Becky Mast:
“Beg.” If you’re in there …

Jimmy Mast:
If you’re in there. So she did it again. She blinked her eyes. This time I stopped it and I ran out and I said, “Hey, yo.” I said his name. I said, “Come here. Now I know that I’m not seeing things and I know what you told me earlier and I respect what medicine says, but I said, She’s in there and you got to listen to this. ” So I rewound it. I said, “Now watch her closely.” I said, “Beck, if you’re in there, blink your eyes.” And sure enough, she did it. And he goes, “Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. That’s straight up legit.” I said, “I’m telling you, she’s in there.” He runs out to his computer and for the next hour he was recording data and just going nuts. And of course that was on Wednesday and Thursday-

Becky Mast:
But they had taken my leads off, right, before that? No? Sorry.

Jimmy Mast:
Not yet. Thursday is the day of reckoning. I go to sleep Wednesday night and I’m all excited because we got some movement and Thursday they’re going to be warming her body up and they’re going to be taking some of the machinery off and things are going to get real Thursday. This is going to be a tough day. Thursday, I never left her side. I was in the room for nine hours. I never went to the bathroom. I never went to get anything to drink. I never went to get anything to eat. It was the most interesting day so far that I’ve had and exciting because things are progressing. And in between that whole day, he’s asking me some questions like, “Dude, I’ve heard a lot of … ” I grew up Catholic, but I’ve heard worship music like, “What is this that you’re listening to?
” And I said, “It’s anointed. It’s worship music on steroids, right? This is anointed.” I said, “This is Holy Spirit power stuff. You got to know this. ” And so we got into some pretty good conversations, a nine hour day. He said, “Now tonight,” I said, “Well, when are we going to extubate her? When are we going to get that tube out? ” And he goes, “Oh man, that won’t be until Monday.” He said, “I tell you what, I’m leaving today and I’m going to request that we don’t do it until Monday.” Why? Why Monday? He says, “She’s not going to be capable of doing it. She’s not.
” Well, Thursday night came and Thursday afternoon I looked at him and I said, “I know you want to go till Monday.” But I said, “My wife’s in there and she wants out. ” I said, “You got to get that tube out of her.” He said, “If that goes against anything, any protocol, all the doctors are going to say no.” I said, “Well, then ask the right one.” He said, “That’s a huge risk, man.” I said, “Well, make up an excuse.” So I’ll tell you what it was from the Weinsburg Fire Department when they put that tube in, it was bigger than what he had wanted. So he put in a request to change the tube to a smaller one, more manageable, and this happened on Thursday night, and I’ll never forget it, before he left, he was there to take it out and there was another nurse there with the smaller one ready to put it in because they did not think she would make it.
They Pulled it out and when they did, her eyes open and he goes, “Becky, Becky, say hello.” And she goes,

Becky Mast:
“Hello.” I mean, it wasn’t that plain for that.

Marlin Miller:
You got to be joking. No. So he said, “Becky, say hello,” and you literally said, “Hello.” Hello.

Becky Mast:
I don’t remember, but …

Marlin Miller:
There’s no tube going back in.

Jimmy Mast:
There’s no tube

Marlin Miller:
Going back. At that point.

Jimmy Mast:
Well, possibly, but no, not at that point.

Marlin Miller:
What did they do?

Jimmy Mast:
There was a white coat guy and I don’t know what you call those. They’re going to laugh at me if you hear this. I don’t know what the white coats are called there, but orderly, not an orderly, he was up there. He was standing beside me and we were against the wall facing Becky’s laying with her head towards us and they’re all around the bed so we’re back against the wall to give them room to do what they need to do. I can’t repeat what he said. His right leg was against the wall and his left leg was on the floor and he was just standing there with his arms crossed. And when she said hello, he said, “You have got to be kidding me. ” And walked out.

Marlin Miller:
He walked out?

Jimmy Mast:
He walked out. Okay. That I didn’t expect. He said, “I can’t believe this. ” In layman’s terms. Right.
Becky’s sister was right there and it was just me and her sisters. We were the only two there to witness this. And from there on it was praying and the power of anointing, the power of faith, the power of God’s healing, the power of a miracle, the power of prayer. I could go on and on and on and on about what I saw. Job said after God had taken everything from Job and then God gave it all back in the story of Job. Job said this, “I have known God, but now I have seen him.” And I take that as my personal story. I grew up in church. I knew who God was. I knew who Jesus was. I went to church every Sunday. I had to. I had to go every Wednesday night for prayer meeting, right?
I knew who God was. You asked me any question about Bible. It was part of our school curriculum curriculum was to memorize scripture. Psalm 1:19, front to back, memorized it, right? I knew God, but now I had seen him and I had seen him in a way that from now on, you can’t talk me down from that one. I saw God do something that medicine said has broken every rule of medicine. Doctors are uttering curse words and walking out. Can’t believe that this happened. So how far will she come back? Will she stop in middle school or will she graduate high school or will she stop in the second grade?
The journey started and for the first three months the left side of her mouth was paralyzed. The tongue didn’t function correctly and she couldn’t do stares, but we took her home 15 days after she was there. She signed her own release forms and she got into the car by herself and we went home and the rest of the healing came at home. I think that was due to the fact that she could be around her kids and family and the people she loved. Like I say, it’s not a formula. It’s not a formula, but I have so many questions that go around James chapter five. That’s a powerful verse. I got to make one more point and then I’m going to let you ask some questions. About five weeks after we got home, the pastor who anointed her that Wednesday afternoon called and said, “Hey, I’d like to be the very first church that you visit telling this story.
Would you

Marlin Miller:
Come?” And by the way, by the way, the pastor who texted you was not the pastor who anointed

Jimmy Mast:
Her. Nope.

Marlin Miller:
Different guy.

Jimmy Mast:
I

Marlin Miller:
Just want to make sure.

Jimmy Mast:
And so Becky still wasn’t really physically fit. I mean, she could get around and so we put a chair up on the stage and Becky sat in the chair and we went to this church to … I mean, the most comfortable thing I can do is play guitar and sing. And so I took my guitar and we actually took a worship team up and then I spoke in between songs and kind of did it, kind of hid it in a piece of cheese so to speak. I can’t just talk to people, right? That would be scary. And so Becky was sitting up on the stage and I had my Bible down on the bench, on the front bench. And I went down to grab my Bible to read a passage. And when I did, I moved my hand like that and a page flew open and a little three by five index card floated down to the floor in front of me in front of this whole church.
And I reached down to get it and when I held it and looked at it, I couldn’t speak. The Bible reference that that man had written on there was James chapter five, verses 13 through 17.

Becky Mast:
Back at the prison.

Jimmy Mast:
All right. The prisoner gave it to me Saturday night before Monday this happened. Why? Wow. And you say things are coincidental and they say things are ironic. No. And I remember what he said. Study this, you’re going to need it.

Becky Mast:
He said pray about it.

Jimmy Mast:
Yeah, pray about it. You’re going to need it.

Marlin Miller:
No way.

Becky Mast:
That was the man that talked to Jimmy before the accident

Jimmy Mast:
Prison. In my conversation with him, I found out that he’s a lifer and since then I’ve tried to make reservations to go back and see him and he is released and out on parole somewhere and I can’t seem to track him down.

Marlin Miller:
He doesn’t know any of this. No. He doesn’t know any of

Jimmy Mast:
This.

Becky Mast:
No. But he was our messenger.

Jimmy Mast:
Goodness gracious. So just on detail like that after the other, we could sit here till dark and I could tell you things that linked in and were meshed and yeah, it was bizarre. It’s been a bizarre journey really, truly, but a good one. I’ve learned in my life that not everything that’s hard is bad.

Marlin Miller:
Our culture says it is.

Jimmy Mast:
Not everything that’s hard is bad.

Marlin Miller:
Yeah. Some of the best things come out of hard things. Yeah.

Becky Mast:
So say that one story yet about when they cooled my body down and I was laying in bed and Jimmy sat there day after day and was just trying to grab everything he could.

Jimmy Mast:
Yeah. So the difference between Celsius and Fahrenheit, I studied in school, but I could never tell you the exact equation. But I do remember there’s a difference, right? There’s quite a bit of a difference between Celsius and Fahrenheit. But when Becky and I started our journey of bettering our lives, when God started to heal our marriage, the on part of the Trinity that we did not know much about was Holy Spirit. We knew God, we knew Jesus, we didn’t know the Holy Spirit. That was something in our culture and in the way that we were raised that we just didn’t talk much about. Not a lot of credibility was placed on the Holy Spirit because we know of movements and we know that abused that. And so obviously being raised conservative the way we were, it was not talked about much because God forbid you go out and speak in tongues or you go out and get slain in the spirit and things like that.
We were a little bit … Well, it’s things of mystery. It truly is. And so we didn’t go there. Well, in our journey of God healing our marriage, we were sort of introduced to the Holy Spirit for the first time given to us in this analogy that the power plant is God.
Jesus is the transformer, but the wire between the two would be the Holy Spirit.

Marlin Miller:
From Jesus to

Jimmy Mast:
Us. From God. From God. I’m sorry. God to the transformer. It takes all three and very vital. But yes, the Holy Spirit is a huge part of our lives today. I mean, I can tell you I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the Holy Spirit in my life, not in this seat, not speaking on this behalf. Yeah. We could debate that all day long too, but in that, Becky would then always say, there were certain winks from God that we would get. For me, it was feathers. For her, it was numbers and these numbers would align and she liked three the best because it was God, the Father, God, the Son, God, the Holy Spirit. It was just this true picture of the Trinity. And so when we go down the road and if 111, 11, 22, but man, if it was 3:33, I mean, everybody had to say what they were thankful for.
“Come on kids, thank God for something. “And she challenged us like driving down the road, 3:33 PM or AM-

Becky Mast:
I love numbers.

Jimmy Mast:
When

Becky Mast:
They matched up like that, I’m like, ” Oh, thank you

Jimmy Mast:
Jesus. “She would constantly remind us of these numbers and of course when they told me that they were going to cool her body down, I didn’t know they were going to freeze her, right? And I walk in and there’s this little LED, it’s probably three inches wide and about an inch tall of an LED readout of what the temperature is in us and it said 33.3. And I’m like, ” They literally are freezing her.

Marlin Miller:
“Because you’re thinking Fahrenheit.

Jimmy Mast:
Yeah.

Marlin Miller:
Oh my goodness.

Jimmy Mast:
And here it was Celsius and I’m like … But it reminded me to thank God. What do you thank God for in the middle of something like that? What do you thank God for?

Becky Mast:
So those were little pieces of hope that Jimmy would see at the hospital that would keep you

Jimmy Mast:
Going. Continually.

Becky Mast:
Yeah.

Jimmy Mast:
Day in, day out. Angels in the elevator angels bringing us gifts for the kids. Angels bringing cash to us angels bringing food in the one night in the lobby at the ICU, the whole lobby was people we knew and a buffet set up from, looked like it came straight out of Dutchman’s, fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, dressing the whole nine yards.

Becky Mast:
To the hospital.

Jimmy Mast:
To the hospital all the way up to Cleveland. And there was never a time that I was alone. There was times I wanted to be alone, but I was never alone. God always provided the right people for the right moment of that whole two week journey. It was absolutely incredible. It’s not something I would wish on anyone, but I wouldn’t trade what I learned and I wouldn’t trade my experiences. I experienced God in a way that other people should be jealous of.

Marlin Miller:
Yeah. I think I understand what you’re saying. Most of us wouldn’t have the guts. Most of us wouldn’t have the guts to, I don’t want to say ask for it, but I just don’t think most of us would have the guts to do it because that is intense and scary beyond anything. And yet at the exact same time, you’re in the drop dead center of his will for you for that moment and there’s no better place to be.

Jimmy Mast:
Right.

Marlin Miller:
As intense as it may be.

Jimmy Mast:
Right. Not everything hard is bad.

Marlin Miller:
So I got to ask you, when you walked in and saw 33.3, what did you thank God for?

Jimmy Mast:
I thanked him for the progress that was made so far, which was very little. It was an intense time of our life.

Marlin Miller:
We’ve been publishing Plain Values for almost 13 years now and about a year ago the team and I decided to put together a compendium, a best of, if you will, of our favorite stories, the most impactful stories of all those years and invited is what we built out of those conversations. It is 194 and four pages and it is absolutely a thing of beauty. We do a monthly gathering here where we just simply open our doors. It’s called Porch Time and the story of how Porchtime came to be and how our family was invited into that and how we are inviting you and every Tom, Dick and Harry, anybody who wants to come can come and hang out at Porch Time here at the office in Weinsburg. So it was such a natural fit to use the home of the founder of Porch Time and to call it invited.
You can find it on plainvalues.com on the shop page and you can now consider yourself invited. What are some of the impacts that this has brought to your marriage?

Jimmy Mast:
Well, I made a vow in the hospital that if … Let’s back up. She went to Millersburg, then she went to Altman. From Altman, we had to drive to Cleveland Clinic. I had Chloe under one arm. I had Mason under the other in the back of her brother’s minivan and we went through McDonald’s to order some food because we hadn’t eaten all day and on the way up I prayed and I said, Lord, with my kids. I said,” If you bring Becky home in a casket, we’re going to give her the best funeral we know how. If you bring her home in a wheelchair, we’re going to take care of her the best we know how. But if you let her live a healthy, normal life, I will never shut up. “Some things that had led into that, I mean, there were so many things that led into it.

Becky Mast:
Didn’t you guys see a falling star?

Jimmy Mast:
Yeah, there was a falling star. And that

Becky Mast:
Was one of my favorite things. And after that prayer, they saw a falling star in the minivan.

Jimmy Mast:
Yeah. And it was interesting because one of my best friends was up at Kelly’s Island paint, one of the islands. It was either Putin Bay or Kelly’s Island. He’s a painter and he was up there painting and he got the word that this had happened and that evening he was sitting out on the deck up on the lake and he said it had to be about 10 o’clock he’s seen a falling star. And he said,” That was God’s confirmation that Becky’s going to be all right. “And I said,” I saw the same one, but we were in Canton.

Marlin Miller:
“It was the same time.

Jimmy Mast:
Well, I don’t know if it was the same one, but it was relatively the same time, same evening, same night and it was like there were so many affirmations and confirmations that people asked me, ” Well, did you have faith? “”Yeah, I had faith.” I don’t know that I ever doubted it, which is wild to think of, but I never doubted it like never. It sounds almost bizarre, but everything that I did looking back, and it was Holy Spirit guiding me everything that I … Okay, for instance, on Tuesday night, this happened Monday night, Tuesday night, I loved her mother-in-law or my mother-in-law, her mother. We had a great relationship. She was the kind of lady that I could just tell how it was and she kind of understood it and she’d tell me how it was, right? And I understood her and we had a great relationship.
I miss her and I’m not trying to disrespect her in any way, but on Tuesday night me and her, me and her mom are walking from the waiting room, from the lobby area. We’re walking back the hall to the ICU. We had went through the one set of big doors and we were getting ready to go through the second big set of doors and she goes, “I asked her niece to stop at your house and get your guitar and everybody’s here tonight. The whole family’s here tonight. So we’re all going to go back here and you’re going to play a song and we’re going to let her go.

Marlin Miller:
” Oh, okay. That’s not what I was expecting you to say.

Jimmy Mast:
And I grabbed her by the arm and I looked at her and I said, “What?” I could talk like that to her. I said, “No, you’re not doing that. ” She goes, “Yes, we are. She’s not going to make it, Jimmy.” I said, “Come with me. ” And I turned her on a diamond out to the lobby we went and I called a family meeting and I said, “Look, if you’re here tonight and you don’t believe, you guys keep saying that she was a good mom, she was a good sister, she was a good, she was, she was. She still is.
And we’re going to believe that until we absolutely can’t. But if that is in your thoughts, don’t go back to the room, don’t go back there.” And it was just all of those little micro moments that I look back and say, “Man, what if we’d let her go? What if I’d have signed the nursing home agreement? What if I’d have signed my housing agreement?” I believe sometimes that we pray and turn around and immediately take it right out of his hands. I’ve done that in other areas of life and in other things. I’ve done it. I’m guilty too. Why do we do that? God, will you provide for me? And then we run to the bank and get a line of credit. I’m just asking.

Marlin Miller:
It’s a great question. It is. It’s a great question. Is it just human nature? Is it our fearful side? It’s work to believe something, Jimmy. I mean, for crying out loud, I feel like an

Jimmy Mast:
Idiot

Marlin Miller:
To say that to you.

Jimmy Mast:
No, no, it is. And I really sincerely feel three years prior to that date of … In 2010, I would have not been ready for it. Hands down, Becky wouldn’t have either. I do believe though … Well, I told her the next round it’s on me that she’s going to have to be the one that’s going to have to faith me back, but …

Becky Mast:
No, no.

Jimmy Mast:
I did my part. Now it’s time. Let’s see how … Can I just

Marlin Miller:
Ask, you guys have got to have some of the best inside jokes

Jimmy Mast:
Between you. Oh yeah. I mean- It’s constant.

Marlin Miller:
Wow.

Jimmy Mast:
But it’s her turn. I exercise my- I don’t want a turn. Yeah. Yeah. But I also want to give a shout out with the friends, with the groups that we were with at that current time and still to this day, it made my faith easier to attain. You show me your five friends and I’ll show you the sum of you, five closest friends and I’ll tell you who you are and I will tell you that was a powerful thing for us in that situation. Our friends, our close friends made it easy for me to believe easier.

Marlin Miller:
Is that what the verse is talking about when I think it’s in Proverbs when he says there’s a friend that’s closer than a brother?

Jimmy Mast:
Yeah.

Marlin Miller:
That’s what he’s talking

Jimmy Mast:
About. I found those through that time. I can

Marlin Miller:
Believe-

Jimmy Mast:
I still have those.

Marlin Miller:
I can believe it. And of course it has nothing to do with your brother. It has nothing to do with your biological sibling, has everything to do with life

Jimmy Mast:
And

Marlin Miller:
The situation. Wow. Okay. Do you have anything to add before I jump into my questions?

Becky Mast:
Well, that was Jimmy’s side of the story?

Marlin Miller:
Yeah.

Becky Mast:
My side of the story is very simple. I told Jimmy I just wanted to take a nap.

Marlin Miller:
You had laid down. Put your head in your

Becky Mast:
Hands. I wanted to take a nap and I took myself a long nap Because I don’t remember people are like, “Did you feel something coming on? Did you feel something the day of on April 15th?” I did not have a runny nose. I did not have a headache. There was nothing wrong with me. I was just like this. I felt fine. I was taking care of my kids that weekend because he was at the prison with his worship team. I was 100% A- okay. There was nothing wrong with me. I just took a nap. My story is so much easier than his.
I don’t remember pain. I don’t remember suffering. I don’t remember hardly anything in the hospital. The only thing I do remember being there, I wanted to go … Cleveland Clinic had a rooftop and I remember I wanted to go outside all the time. I just wanted to go outside. I didn’t understand why I was in there. After I got home, I said, “Jimmy, why didn’t you tell me that my heart stopped? Because I would have been nicer to my nurses.” I was always trying to like, “I just want to go home. I want to go home.” And Jimmy said, “Every morning I told you, you’re at Cleveland Clinic because your heart stopped.” I don’t remember.

Marlin Miller:
Did you have any spiritual … Did you go to the other side? Was there anything at all like that?

Becky Mast:
I wish so bad. I could tell you what heaven looked like because I believe I was there. I believe in those 35 minutes I was somewhere because I wasn’t here, but I don’t remember anything. I don’t remember anything good and I don’t remember anything bad. So I really don’t have any bad memories. I came home and I had to struggle to walk. I struggled to talk. I struggled, but all that came with time. I just needed time to heal. So really my story is so easy for me. I really didn’t struggle

Marlin Miller:
That was one of my questions. When you brought her home, you said that her left side-

Jimmy Mast:
Left side

Marlin Miller:
Wasn’t totally back. How long did it take for those things

Jimmy Mast:
To- About three months.

Marlin Miller:
So in three months and two weeks …

Jimmy Mast:
Three months.

Marlin Miller:
But there are no delays. There are no … I mean, are there some? I don’t know. Maybe I should ask that.

Becky Mast:
So I have a pacemaker and a defibrillator that they installed before I went home from the hospital. And so I’m on my third one. Every six years I have to replace the battery. So in order to replace the badgery, they change device. So this is my third one that I did last April and I take two little pills, heart pills every day. Other than that, I am 100% normal.

Jimmy Mast:
Define

Marlin Miller:
Normal. 35 minutes.

Becky Mast:
Yeah.

Marlin Miller:
I don’t even know what to say.

Becky Mast:
And you know what? This is God’s story. I’m just the open vessel that carries it. Sometimes I’m like, He chose me. He chose me to carry this story. And I feel honored. I feel like I had the easy road and he chose me to carry this story. God gets all the glory. He gets all the glory for everything.

Jimmy Mast:
When I started this podcast, it’s not a formula. It’s not things I did. This is God. This is not … Oh, well, again, I’ll go back and just reiterate. It’s not … Well, they started a prayer chain. And by the way, we started that Facebook page on Tuesday night. By Sunday, over 39,000 people had viewed that page according to the analytics. 39,000. I don’t know that many. I don’t even know a thousand people probably. Yeah, maybe I do. But that’s crazy. We started that. Well, could that be part of the formula? See, if you’re not careful, it becomes a formula. It is not a formula. It is merely God did it. He gets all the honor and glory. It’s not what I did. It’s not that I prayed a certain prayer and we anointed at a certain time or anything like that. Those are what we did, but it’s what God did.

Becky Mast:
It’s not like we’re perfect people. We are not.

Marlin Miller:
And he could have done the same thing.

Jimmy Mast:
Without any of that.

Marlin Miller:
Without

Jimmy Mast:
Any

Marlin Miller:
Of it. Yes. That’s

Jimmy Mast:
Exactly right. That’s the point.

Marlin Miller:
That’s the

Jimmy Mast:
Point. You find yourself in a situation, don’t just do it that way. Do it the way that God asks you to do it. Yeah.

Marlin Miller:
Yeah. Because it’s going to be a perfect

Jimmy Mast:
Thing. And if it means going down to the Jordan and dipping seven times, then do it.

Marlin Miller:
Yeah.

Jimmy Mast:
See what I’m saying?

Marlin Miller:
Yeah, I do. Well, I mean, it ties directly into sovereignty. Into the fact that God actually controls every little stitch and it’s so hard and so easy to understand and then pull on the thread and you find yourself in a can of worms in no time. Ever since I was a teenager, I remember being totally intrigued with how his sovereignty works on the one hand and then our free will on the other and how those things mesh like gear like they do. I will probably be fascinated with that trying to figure it out until I’m dead and there. But I love stories like this because it has everything to do with us and it has nothing to do with us. Correct. Both and. Right. It’s both and. What was that time like for Damon and Chloe? I mean, obviously Mason is seven months old. He doesn’t remember anything.
How has it impacted your kids? I mean, you just-

Jimmy Mast:
Boy, that’s a great question, Marlon. I don’t know that I have-

Becky Mast:
I have a story

Jimmy Mast:
For that. Yeah, go for it.

Becky Mast:
No, you have to say it. Oh. Okay, so Damon and Chloe, they were old enough to know life without mom helping. And somebody spoke into our lives, this was not an attack on me but on Mason, that story. That’s a good story, but Jimmy will have to say it.

Jimmy Mast:
That might be part two.

Marlin Miller:
Okay. That’s totally good.

Jimmy Mast:
It’s

Marlin Miller:
Totally good.

Jimmy Mast:
As far as for Damon and Chloe, the ones that do remember, I would tell you I believe it made them better kids. Damon grew up so fast because of it. He had to. He saw pretty directly that what could have been. I’m super proud of what he’s done in his life and where he’s come to and just the sheer maturity and there’s nothing that he can’t do. And I think this event sort of triggered some of that mindset for him. He’s a great kid. Chloe, same thing. I think it triggered something in them that this could have been completely different. What would it look like if it was this way? The responsibilities that we would have, and I’m telling you, they’re both very responsible. Mason didn’t get the magnitude of that, right? He didn’t understand it. So we got some work to do with him as far as seeing responsibility and doing things.
But they are very responsible. They’re good Christian kids.
And I believe that happened to Becky. I think that was very much a big part of the reason that they did turn out the way they did. I don’t know if that makes sense or not, but that’s how I feel about it. Not that they were destined to be bad children. None of us want that. But as far as being rebellious and they’re just not. They’re just not. They’re good kids. Much better than me at 16 year old driving to Florida by myself against my mom and dad’s wishes. But then I did meet Becky there. Back to that sovereignty day. I was a rebellious one. My kids are not like that. And I think this story, it’s continual. I don’t know that a day goes by that I don’t talk about it with someone about certain aspects of it. I don’t go into the whole details like I did here today, but some aspect.
There’s always just a … I draw from that story so often, but I made a vow that I would. And so I do.

Becky Mast:
Also, when I was in the hospital and my kids were at babysitters and somebody had to take care of my children, somebody was taking care of Chloe and she broke her arm while-

Jimmy Mast:
The first week.

Becky Mast:
Wasn’t it the first first couple days I was in the hospital, she broke her arm. So there was a little hiccup, but it all worked out. God worked everything out and she’s fine, but during that time she struggled.

Jimmy Mast:
Yeah. It was just like the one thing after the next. It just seemed like in that moment, he’s after us.

Marlin Miller:
Yeah. When it rains, it

Jimmy Mast:
Pours. Yeah.

Marlin Miller:
The idea. Well, it also keeps everything in perspective. I mean, all of a sudden you don’t see a broken arm as a huge issue, I guess, in a way. This episode of The Plain Values Podcast is being brought to you by my friends at Kentucky Lumber. Derek and I were talking this morning and he shared a story about how they like to do business and they like to do business with people that are like them and they like to be treated in a way that they treat their own customers. He told me about a customer of theirs that he had to fire and this was not going the way that it typically does. And this guy was not being happy with anything that they did and nothing was good enough. And finally Derek said, “You know what? You’ve disrespected my team enough and I think we’re done.
And so you can go find your lumber someplace else.” And the attitude and the heart behind the way that Derek sees the world is exactly the way that I see the world and I have a hunch you might as well. If you call Kentucky Lumber, just know that they might fire you if you treat them poorly.
I’m kidding, of course. But they will treat you with the utmost respect because it’s how they want to be treated. And I think there’s a golden rule thing in there somewhere, but if you need anything at all to do with any lumber, wood flooring, wood siding, any type of wood product that has character just baked into it and a great team to match, call my friends at Kentucky Lumber. You can find them at drywallhaters.com. How can we pray for you guys?

Jimmy Mast:
When this all happened, I mean, I made a vow that I would never argue with her again so far so good.

Becky Mast:
Let’s just say I could have asked for anything in the world and I didn’t understand. I didn’t.

Jimmy Mast:
But we get in, these events happen, things happen and for every person and every couple, it’s going to be something different. For us, it was this. I can tell you I felt so close to the Lord that I never wanted to leave that. Then you come home, you got to go to work. And what we didn’t talk about is we were going through right after that we went through some major financial issues, major with … We had a store and we were losing money every day. We’re not talking about that. We can do that in part three or four if you want to, but like we had that stress and it was like, but I felt so close to God through that term, that three months, two, three months. And then reality hit me again and here we go. We have to go back to work.
We got to solve problems. And so how you can pray for me, I don’t ever want to go through anything like that again, but that my desire and I think Becky’s on the same … I want to feel God that way every day. What would it take? What do we have to do in our lives to feel that close to him every single day? And if you say you do, well, good for you, but I raise my eyebrows a little bit.
I want that every day. And I think that’s a longing that God puts into us that we desire to be close to him and we won’t experience it every day until we get to on the other side. But my prayer is that I can feel those moments of that closeness with him here now. That’s how I want people to pray for me. You?

Becky Mast:
I would love if I would never have to have another pacemaker and a defibrillator because the last time I did it, the surgery was rough.

Marlin Miller:
Really?

Becky Mast:
It was rough and I don’t want to do that again.

Marlin Miller:
I was going to ask you about that. So this is a pretty neophyte question here. The pacemaker and the defib are inside. They’re not hanging-

Becky Mast:
No, they’re inside. They’re not in my way. It’s not like I struggle with it being in my way. It’s right here. It’s inside. You can feel it.

Marlin Miller:
But they have to open you up.

Becky Mast:
Yes. And-

Marlin Miller:
Do the work.

Becky Mast:
My third surgery was not long ago. It’s still in my brain and I’m fine. I’m like, “Oh, I can do that. It’s not that bad.” But it was. I don’t want to do it again.

Marlin Miller:
Was there scar tissue from other surgeries and things like that or … Maybe I’m asking things I shouldn’t

Jimmy Mast:
Like. No, it was her third one and so

Becky Mast:
I was awake the whole time. Oh,

Jimmy Mast:
Okay.

Becky Mast:
Yeah. And it’s not … So I can’t see because they take something around my neck and they put it up so I don’t see what’s in front of me. My head’s in a donut so I can hear. I can hear it. They’re asking me these questions that I know that they’re wanting to know if I’m out or if I’m with it. So I know I’m probably going to go to sleep soon. And I never did. I never did. I was awake the whole time. I’m sorry to laugh.

Jimmy Mast:
I have no

Marlin Miller:
Idea what that would be

Jimmy Mast:
Like. Well, so the reason that it was like that, that the reality of it is her heart is … It’s used. Her valves, there’s the same amount of blood comes around her valve as it goes down when it pumps right now. So her heart is still at an expanded level. So the pacemaker does pace. That’s why we’re on the third one. The battery does wear out because it is running a lot. It’s

Marlin Miller:
Being used.

Jimmy Mast:
Yeah.

Marlin Miller:
I got

Jimmy Mast:
It. So as she laid there to get an EKG without it pacing, they could not get it. That tells you how much it was working. So with the heart and the current condition, they could not put her under to get the surgery done.

Becky Mast:
Wow.

Jimmy Mast:
So you know me. I said, “Well, why don’t we go to herb’s tarp and have them put a zipper in and then we can just zip it and do it quicker.”

Marlin Miller:
What kind of an answer did you get?

Jimmy Mast:
It’s just one of those things. The reality of it is we wish it was better at this currently.

Becky Mast:
Yeah. So that’s my only prayer request, I guess.

Marlin Miller:
You guys, thank you for spending the time, for sharing. You’re

Jimmy Mast:
Welcome.

Marlin Miller:
I really appreciate it. I remember being in the community. I live here. I remember hearing about your situation, but I didn’t know anything about it and I didn’t know anything at all. And it was just, when was the fall gathering in town here? Back in the-

Jimmy Mast:
September.

Marlin Miller:
September.

Jimmy Mast:
Yeah.

Marlin Miller:
And I saw you and I went, “I need to talk to Becky.” And that ironically, or that’s when I actually discovered that Chloe works at the bank that I go to all the time and I never knew. She’s wonderful. I never knew that she was your daughter. I am so glad that you guys made the time.

Jimmy Mast:
Thanks for having us. This is a story that- We appreciate it. We feel honored to carry. I mean,

Marlin Miller:
The world needs to hear things like this,

Jimmy Mast:
Especially

Marlin Miller:
In days like this where everybody is struggling with tough things and it’s just an amazing

Jimmy Mast:
Reminder.

Marlin Miller:
Yeah.

Jimmy Mast:
God is good. Yes. He is all providing.

Becky Mast:
And I think even at Cleveland Clinic, when we walked back in like two weeks after we had an appointment and I walked in and they were like, “Bed 18 is walking.” I blew everybody. Everybody’s eyes were like, “Bed 18 is walking.” It’s so hard to believe.

Marlin Miller:
So when you left, did they still think, and I’m sorry to go back into this for a second, did Grace, have you talked to Grace since?

Jimmy Mast:
Yes.

Marlin Miller:
How did that go?

Jimmy Mast:
Let me compose. So a few weeks after we got home, we had an appointment on … So the way that it all works, I mean, if it’s interesting for people, you go to ICU, you have a set of 12 doctors up there with a set of RNs and everybody that’s on that floor, right? And then they move you down to step down. That’s on floor number two and that’s a whole different entourage of doctors and a whole different group of nurses. You lose track of up top, right? And so I mean, I could go on and on, but we were asked for a checkup on floor number one. Now remember, floor three is trauma ICU. Floor two is step down. Floor one is just sort of checkups, whatever. And the doctor that had been on floor three, he was the head of the group of 12 doctors that came through every morning to make a prognosis or give the prognosis.
We went back for our checkup. She walked in. I got valet out front. We walk in, go to our desk, wait our turn, go in, go back in the back. We’re there at checkup and we’re sitting just like this. I remember we’re sitting beside each other and there’s a doorway over here to our right and a doctor flew by there and all of a sudden he backs up, he looks in and I said, he goes, “Bed 18.” I said, “Yes, sir.” And he goes, “I don’t even know your name.” And he looks at her and he comes in and he touches her on her shoulder and he looked at, he kind of squeezed her. He goes, “You’re alive?” See, he lost track of her from up top down.

Marlin Miller:
They would’ve assumed that

Jimmy Mast:
She didn’t

Marlin Miller:
Make it.

Jimmy Mast:
And he looks around and he goes, “Are you walking?” And I said, “Yeah, you walked in here.” I said, “Yeah.” Then he, sorry, he asked me a couple questions. I said, “She can talk. You talk to

Marlin Miller:
Her.” And this is how long after-

Jimmy Mast:
Three weeks. Three

Marlin Miller:
Weeks.

Jimmy Mast:
Three or four weeks. Probably three and a half weeks, somewhere in there. Three to four weeks.

Marlin Miller:
So you bring her home.

Jimmy Mast:
Yeah, we’re back home. We’re doing life. We go back for a checkup and he comes from floor three down to floor one, just happened to go past the … He recognized me, not her.

Marlin Miller:
So this is still close enough that it’s not out of their memory.

Jimmy Mast:
I mean,

Marlin Miller:
Bed 18.

Jimmy Mast:
Bed 18.

Marlin Miller:
Boom. They know.

Jimmy Mast:
They know she’s 37 years old, got three kids, probably won’t make it. That was the-

Marlin Miller:
Sure.

Jimmy Mast:
Yeah. Sure.

Marlin Miller:
The whole hospital would’ve known.

Jimmy Mast:
Oh yeah.

Becky Mast:
And I think that day the nurses and the doctors and everybody that was with us, the tissue box came around.

Jimmy Mast:
Yeah. So he goes, “I’ll be right back. Don’t you leave without me talking to you. ” I said, “Okay. All right. Well, whatever.” You had no idea. I had no idea what he was doing. And he comes back a few minutes later and he goes, “You’re going up there. Can you make it to floor three?” And she goes, “Yeah.” He goes, “Please come up there. I have something for you. ” And so when we get there, he met us out by the lobby and he takes us through the big doors and then through the second big doors. And when we got in there, all of the RNs that were on duty that day were standing there and he said, “I want to show you bed 18.” And Grace was there and that’s when me and Grace had a talk and it was pretty emotional. She told me that she can never … She said, “I’m a believer, but I never dreamed.” She would live.
I never dreamed that she would even have a value to life anymore. I figured she’d be highly handicapped the rest of her life if she lives. And she goes, “I am so sorry.” But she’s like, “I want you to know one thing I will never be the same and I will never treat another patient that way.” Wow.
And then the doctor says, “This lady, all of you are witnessing has broken every rule of medicine. Everything I thought I knew got thrown out the

Marlin Miller:
Window.”

Jimmy Mast:
Wow.
So when she was Life Flighted from Millersburg to Altman, they prepped her at Altman to get on a Life Flight. A team of six flew in from Cleveland Clinic to transport her. Wow. The head of that crew, when we got there, I got to go in and see her at 2:00 AM. She’s the one that came out to the lobby to get me and say, “You can come in and see Becky.” It took almost four hours to transfer her from transportable to permanent, right? Whatever you want to call it. All the machines, everything was an intricate deal. As soon as I got done seeing her, this lady that was head over that crew said, she took me to the side and she said, “Becky’s only going to, your wife’s only going to get better under one condition that you get rest.” And she walks me over to the Intercontinental Hotel, which is a part of the Cleveland Clinic and gets me a room and said, “You go to sleep.
She’ll still be here when you get up in the morning.” Fast forward, fast forward, I slept, never seen that lady again. She’s head over the one crew for the Life Flight, which never comes down to, you know what I mean? I never seen her again.
That happened on April 15th, 2013. April 15th, it would have been about because the next 26th, probably about the 20 … She went home 15 days later, right? So it had to be about the 28th, 29th. We were closing in on going home. One night, Becky was in the bathroom at step down now. We’re seeing the finish line now. She’s in the bathroom combing her hair in front of the mirror, standing up combing her hair in front of the mirror. I get a knock on the door. I said, “Come in. ” And the door opened and it was the crew chief from that Life Flight that got me a motel room the first night. She booked me a room and she goes, “Is your wife in here?” I said, “Yeah, she’s in the bathroom.” And the door was kind of open so she kind of looked in there and Becky’s in there combing her hair with a brush and she literally freaked out.
She was like, “I went to Cancun for 10 days and you’re the first person I … ” I didn’t even clock in yet. She said, “I went to the director to see if you’re still here and I cannot believe what I’m seeing.” She said, “When I seen your name,” she was like, “I hope for the best, but I feared the worst.” And she’s like, “She’s combing her hair?” It was amazing. So even little details like that, Becky wouldn’t remember that she was still in that traumatic deal, but that stuff was happening a lot, but she does remember the doctor three, four weeks later she remembers that. But Grace, we made a lot of powerful relationships.

Becky Mast:
A lot of friends.

Marlin Miller:
I have no idea. Guys, thank you.

Jimmy Mast:
Yeah, you’re welcome.

Marlin Miller:
We will continue at some point.

Jimmy Mast:
Yeah. How are God leads?