God kept my friend safe from harm

In March 2016, I travelled on holiday with a few friends of mine to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. We had planned an incredible trip and had a very full itinerary with a view to creating lifelong memories.

On one of the days whilst we were out there, we had decided to spend time at Copacabana beach - one of the most famous beaches in the world and known for beautiful views, a vibrant atmosphere and at times, strong waves. Two of my friends decided to go in the water to enjoy themselves and take some shots for Instagram. I and another friend decided rather to stay on the beach and enjoy the sun.

What felt like the space of ten minutes saw my friends who were in the water going from enjoying themselves to shouting for help. The waves had become strong quite suddenly and they were struggling to keep afloat. Neither I nor my other friend who was on the beach with me could swim so we started screaming for help whilst simultaneously feeling incredibly helpless. There didn't appear to be a lifeguard nearby at the time so random people who were on the beach jumped into the water to save my friends. They were able to drag both of them out onto shore but unfortunately, one of them was only semi-responsive on the brink of unconscioness, having drowned. As he lay on the beach, a crowd of beachgoers had gathered around him. To make matters more concerning, everyone was speaking in Portuguese so none of us could interpret what was happening. My friend and I started to pray, believing he would be ok, but in all honesty, I was scared as a number of questions ran through my mind.

What would I tell his family? Should we even tell his family at this stage?

What was going to be the outcome?

He didn't have travel insurance so how were we going to cover any potential medical costs?

In the meantime, an ambulance had been called and my friend was taken away in it to a nearby hospital. The rest of us followed behind in a taxi, barely speaking the entire journey.

The hospital that we ended up at was, truthfully, quite scary too. It didn't appear to be the most sanitary and it was clear that only a very basic level of care would likely be provided. As we waited, we kept praying and tried to keep each other encouraged. In this time, we had managed to get through to another friend that we had met during our time in Rio who happened to be a Brazilian native. She came over to the hospital as soon as she could and was an amazing help. She helped to give us updates as we waited by translating everything for us. She had also never been to a hospital like that before and started crying whilst we were there because she was so moved by how inadequate the standard of care appeared to be. This wasn't the most encouraging of things to witness but I mention this because to me, it reinforces how much God moved in this situation.

Hours passed and we were finally told that our friend was doing ok! His lungs had filled up with water and he had to have it pumped out but miraculously, after performing this procedure, he was completely fine with no complications. In fact, the very next day, he was able to join us for a testing hike! It was truly a work of God. People drown all the time and do not make it. A quote that I found from Medscape.com said this on the statistical chances of surviving post-drowning:

Patients who are comatose, those receiving CPR at presentation to the emergency department (ED), or those who have fixed and dilated pupils and no spontaneous respirations have a poor prognosis. In a number of studies, 35-60% of individuals needing continued CPR on arrival to the ED die, and 60-100% of survivors in this group experience long-term neurologic sequelae.

I believe that my friend was in a high risk group but did not have any of the above outcomes. Today, we often laugh about the experience and truth be told, it has not marred my memories of our trip to Brazil (it still remains one of my favourite trips I've taken to date) to the glory of God!

I had almost forgotten about this testimony because my friend is and continues to be so full of life. It's hard to believe at some point, this might have been a different story. But God had a good plan for his life and I'm thankful that we can stand on this side of the incident and confirm that God is indeed faithful!