In 1997 I was volunteering for an organization called Compassion in Action created by Dannion Brinkley, author of Saved by the Light. His book was published a couple of years after Betty J. Eadie’s Embraced by the Light and chronicled his near-death experience. During Dannion’s experience he was instructed to help hospice patients, so he created a volunteer organization to help the dying.

During the time I volunteered I was also a financial analyst for Scripps Health in San Diego, and my office was located at Scripps La Jolla Hospital. Compassion in Action received a request from a lady whose son had been in a critically injuring car accident and was in the long-term care unit at the hospital. When she heard about our organization she asked if we could visit her son, who was slowly coming out of a coma. Although he wasn’t a hospice patient our representative asked me to visit him, since I worked at the hospital.

Shad was a new father in his early twenties and in the United States Marine Corps when he was in a terrible automobile accident while on his way to Camp Pendleton. He was taken to Scripps La Jolla Hospital, and in the intensive care unit he was kept alive by life support and wasn’t given much chance to live. His mom, an extremely religious woman with very strong faith in God, had flown from her home back east to be with Shad every day until he miraculously began coming out of his coma. When she had to go back home she wanted Shad to have visitors to help his recovery continue strongly.

I was very nervous when I went to Shad’s room for the first time to visit him. However, as I visited him each day I witnessed the continuing miracle of his recovery and also watched with admiration the nurses and therapists who worked with him very patiently. He made excellent progress and had a great sense of humor, and although he didn’t regain his speech or ability to walk his spirit remained resilient. He communicated by hand signals and then was given a portable computer device, where he could type in his words and the machine would voice what he typed. He typed some very funny things, and his memory, spelling, and grammar proved that his mind had made an outstanding recovery.

When Shad had physically recovered enough, the hospital staff arranged a field trip for him and another patient. The other patient, Clint, was a man in his 60s who had some type of viral infection that had attacked his spinal cord, leaving him paralyzed. This would be his first time outside in four years. We took Shad and Clint to the beach and watched a beautiful sunset, and then we took them to a local sports bar and grill. Shad and Clint really enjoyed this outing, as did the rest of us.

Another memorable time was when Dannion was in San Diego and he, along with some of us volunteers, stopped by to see Shad. Since Dannion had also been a U.S. Marine they shared a common bond, and it was easy to see his visit meant very much to Shad. One of Shad’s biggest supporters was a lady named Rita who wasn’t affiliated with our volunteer organization but had met his mom while working at a local department store, and when his mom told her about Shad she also began visiting him. Rita continued visiting Shad and was very sad when he left the Scripps system, so I referred her to Clint. She and her husband Sid began visiting Clint and became good friends with him as well.

I visited Shad until he was transferred out of the Scripps system, and I visited Clint until his death last year. I considered both of them friends who were inspirations to me, and I know it was not a coincidence our paths crossed.

When I’ve seen Dannion speak he usually says something to the effect of, “If God couldn’t make it and sent us to take His place, what difference would God make?” I think he means that God sends us to serve and help others and to make a difference. I’m not sure what difference I made in the lives of Shad and Clint, but I hope I helped them in some small way. I know they helped me, and I'm grateful God placed them in my path.