A MIRACLE IN COSTA
RICA
After six days of a wonderful pastor’s conference
in San Jose, Costa
Rica three pastor friends and I decided to spend our last day before returning home at
a beautiful pacific beach called Manuel Antonio. It was a delightful 3-hour drive from San Jose and when we arrived the water was magnificent. The
pacific was a deep blue with a 4 to 6 foot surf. Needless to say we couldn’t wait to get in to the
water.
We spent the first thirty
minutes body surfing and just enjoying the beauty of the beach, the ocean, and the surrounding jungle, which is a Costa Rican
national park. By this time however I was getting a little tired and decided to head back to shore.
I turned to go toward the beach and at that moment a powerful undertow swept my feet out from under me as
a huge breaker caught my body and catapulted me headfirst into the hard sand. The pain was excruciating,
as if molten lava passed through me head to toe in a millisecond, then absolute silence and no pain at all. I
knew I had just been seriously injured, yet I could see perfectly and I never lost consciousness, however
the silence was overwhelming. I was aware that I was underwater for I could see the dark water below and
the lighter water above, I thought I must get my feet on the ground but when I tried to move my feet they were not there,
I could not feel them. I then thought I must swim with my hands but they were not there either, then it
became very apparent to me, I was in the surf, totally submerged and totally paralyzed, shrouded in total silence.
It was at that
moment that I realized this was it, I was about to meet the Lord. I cried out to Him, “Lord not here,
not now…don’t let Sandy be a widow and my children be fatherless!” In my crying out to the Lord I had an overwhelming
sense of regret that I wasn’t ready to give an account yet, I had not fulfilled my destiny. I began
to look out and I was seeing the Costa Rican landscape and shoreline, it seemed as if I was looking down from the air. Fear
began to grip me that I was about to give an account and I wasn’t ready, then I heard Him say, “Did
you receive my love and did you give it away?” I remembered then the passage in 1st
John, “perfect love casts out fear”.
It was then
I felt a tremendous peace descend upon me and suddenly I could see the clear blue sky from underwater and out of my peripheral
vision I could see one of my friends, I thought that my head must be out of the water though I could not feel anything.
I cried out “help me” as loud as I could and the next thing I knew they were pulling me out of the water
and setting me down on the beach. I was alive yet still totally paralyzed. They began
to pray that I would be totally restored while they waited for the ambulance to arrive. Within 30 minutes
most of my functions were restored with the exception of my left shoulder and arm. An ambulance arrived shortly after that and took me to the nearest hospital where the x-rays
revealed that I had broken my neck, the cervical #1 and cervical #2 neck vertebrae had each received substantial
posterior fractures on both the right and left sides, in other words I had what the medical community calls “a hangman’s
fracture”, a generally fatal injury. The doctor said he was afraid I needed surgery and that they
were not equipped for this kind of injury at their small coastal hospital. He said that I must be airlifted to San Jose
in the interior of Costa Rica. They chartered a private plane (they had to remove the seats as it was not
an air ambulance) and airlifted me through a horrendous thunderstorm to San Jose where I ultimately ended up at a wonderful
Christian hospital facility called "Clinica de Biblica", in English the Hospital of the Bible!
There an awesome neurosurgeon by the name of Dr. Mora, who spoke perfect English told me I would not need surgery,
that my scans showed he could place me in an apparatus called a “halo” vest. It goes around the skull
with pins holding it in place and bars securing it to a shoulder mounted vest, this keeps the neck perfectly rigid while the
healing takes place in the injured cervicals. The doctor was amazed that after such a critically serious
injury, the entire related trauma, and all the transportation that the x-rays showed my neck was in perfect alignment.
Sandy, my wife, arrived
the next day from Atlanta and stayed with me until
we were released to come back home. For the first 3 days I was on morphine for pain and had a very difficult
time swallowing, however with physical therapy (my therapists name was Nazareth!) I regained 70% of the use of my left arm and regained my swallowing within 5
days. Initially the doctor said that it would take at least 3 months for me to be well enough to leave
the hospital. Originally they thought I should be airlifted back to Atlanta on a chartered jet to get more medical treatment, at a cost of over $ 35,000.00. To make this long
story short, I walked out on my own power one week later and flew home on a commercial airline (First class I must say, the
Christian stewardess’ that helped my wife a week before on the flight down were on the flight back and upgraded us to
1st class and pampered us all the way back to Atlanta).
There were so many miraculous things that happened I couldn’t begin to list
them all but a few stand out:
1. I did not die from the initial
impact and subsequent breaks of the cervicals (hangman’s fractures are generally fatal)
2. I did not drown while I was paralyzed in the water (nor did I swallow or
breathe in any water)
3. I did not die while they pulled
me from the water
4. I did not suffer permanent spinal
injury during transportation (4 ambulance rides and a medical airlift)
5. I ended up in the care of the finest medical team and facility in Central America and my doctor said
it was a miracle that my neck was in perfect alignment for him to set the halo vest, as if someone was holding
my neck in alignment (wonder who that could have been?).
Each day I awake now with the deepest thankfulness
and joy you could imagine. The sense of His presence is overwhelming and the realization each moment we
have is a precious gift is ever before me. Every day is another opportunity for us to glorify Jesus and share his wonderful
love with others, I desire more than ever before to redeem what time I have left for His glory.
Tony Cavener
September 15, 2000
P.S. It is now six year later (August 2006) and I am 100% restored.
I have a physician in my church who said to me that the reason I didn’t have any water in my lungs was because
“dead men don’t breathe”! I rejoice daily in this miracle of life and consider it a first
fruits of the miracles that we are about to see in the glorious days ahead, COME LORD JESUS!
