In the summer of 1997, Julie Kemp, her husband, Andy, and their 8-year-old son, Landon, were driving home from church when an ambulance coming back to its station crashed into their car at an intersection.
Emergency responders were able to stabilize Julie, but her husband and son were not so fortunate.
Andy died instantly, and the paramedics initially did not even realize there was a third passenger because of the severe damage done to the driver’s side of the vehicle. Rescuers noticed Landon’s little shoe peeking out, and that initiated a more thorough search for his body. They were eventually able to retrieve his body, but to his mother’s horror, he was limp and not breathing.
Landon was resuscitated and flown to Carolinas Medical Center in North Carolina, but his fight for life was far from over. He died two more times that day, and doctors informed Julie that he would likely not survive. Even if he did, he would have the mind of an 8-year-old baby and be unable to walk, talk or eat due to the severe brain damage incurred.
“I was so desperate that that was okay. I would take that just to have him. He was all that I had,” said Julie.
At Andy’s funeral, she had never felt so lonely, broken and abandoned by God.
“I was very disappointed. Heartbroken,” she said. “And while I’m sitting at the funeral, I’m fussing at God. I don’t understand why this happened. I don’t understand why he didn’t send angels to protect us, but in the very next breath I’m praying as hard to him as I’ve ever prayed in my life for Landon to live.”
“He’s hooked up to all kinds of machines to keep him alive, and there are no signs. There’s nothing good or bad,” added Julie through tears. “They see nothing happening. I kept praying that he would open his eyes.”
And two weeks later, Landon did exactly that. He woke up from his coma, and to the doctors’ astonishment, he suffered no brain damage.