My entire family went up to North Carolina for my mom's birthday. But on October 7th, 1997, we planned to just spend the day at Chimney Rock (a national park) and then return home a day or two after that. Little did we know that our all-knowing God was going to test our faith and trust in Him...in a way we never would've dreamed. Josh was 12 at the time. I don't believe our entire family (plus my mom's parents) had ever been to Chimney Rock, so we were all excited. We climbed all around to the different viewpoints and finally reached the biggest look-out area, which we had to use a wooden staircase to get to. Most of us stayed on the flat part, taking pictures, admiring the beauty of the surrounding forests and mountains. Josh however, got restless and went down the wooden spiral staircase ahead of us to 'explore'. While waiting for us to come down, he decided he would try to climb up the outside of the spiral staircase, since the boards seemed to be close enough together. He got about 20 feet up when the board he'd grabbed onto broke and he fell onto hard rock, on his back. Note: had he chosen to climb a little over to the left of the staircase, he would've fallen over a cliff...and this would be a very different post.
Meanwhile, he didn't scream, and there were other people milling about, so the rest of our family was unaware of what had happened. As we made our way to the staircase, my mom looked over the edge and saw Josh lying on his back. She jokingly exclaimed, "look guys, Josh is dead. Steph, take a picture!" I didn't. My dad got down there and saw that Josh's head was bleeding and told my mom that he wasn't okay. The next thing I remember, Jenn and Granddaddy were gone looking for help, I was sitting at the bottom of the stairs w/ my grandmother (praying softly), my mom (crying), and my 2 little brothers (who started screaming once my mom started crying). My dad kept asking Josh questions but he mostly responded w/ "what?"..."I don't know"..."my head hurts". When the on-call paramedics FINALLY got there, that's when the real stress set in! (What SHOULD have happened, is they should've airlifted him where we were at because 1. this was a head trauma, and 2. we were so far down the path that the EMT's had to carry Josh on FOOT all the way back to the parking lot where the ambulance was. But God is sovereign, and He's the One who ultimately sustained Josh's life.)
So before the paramedics put him in the stretcher to carry him, they had to put a neck brace on him...easy enough, right? Um, yah. They had to read the INSTRUCTIONS as to HOW you put a neck brace on someone! Yah, just a little pent-up frustration...;) So once they put the neck brace on, they carried him down the trail/mountain to the ambulance...with the entire Lightfoot/Smith family trailing behind.
He got to the hospital and they ran tests. They found a blood clot on his brain. The doctors told us they would need to remove the blood clot but it was a very dangerous procedure, because they would literally have to scrape the blood clot off, and if they scraped even the tiniest bit too hard, he would end up with some memory loss or even some form of handicap. This was a roller-coaster week for the Lightfoot family.
To make a long story short (and because I can't remember the details), Josh was in the hospital past our vacation, so dad ended up driving the rest of us kids home while mom stayed with Josh in the hospital...then they stayed with Grandpa (my dad's dad) after the surgery, then he went back into the hospital due to complications, and then he was able to recover.
*due to graphic content, proceed with caution*Josh has a scar that goes from the top front of his skull down to his ear where the doctors made the incision. They basically made a flap to pull back part of his scalp, and then part of his skull so they could get to the blood clot. By God's grace, they were able to scrape out the blood clot without causing any damage (though it can be a good excuse sometimes)! They actually GAVE the blood clot to Josh in a jar of formaldehyde that he kept for a few years till it disintigrated. =)All along, we had so many people praying for Josh and our family. We had only been going to Metro for about 2 years when Josh's accident happened, but were immediately surrounded by the love of our church family, walked out in numerous tangible ways! People continue to tell Josh (since the accident) that God must have a plan for his life, to have brought him through an incident like that, virtually unscathed. How neat to see God's plan for Josh's life slowly unfolding, even now!
Below are some pictures of Josh/our family, with in the last couple years. =)
