Larry Larsen comes back
February 8, 2010
By Christopher Huber
New: Feb. 8, 8:38 p.m.
Sammamish man revives after dying
After dying four times in 10 days, Larry Larsen simply got up and walked out of the hospital. He’s not sure how he managed it, but Larsen, a Sammamish resident, believes there were larger forces at work.
His journey to a second chance in life began with a massive, out-of-the-blue heart attack Jan. 13. The experience brought doctors, paramedics and even veterinarians to his aid. Some of them attribute his survival to having exercised throughout his life. Others, including his wife Priscilla Larsen, say it was a bit, or a lot, of divine intervention.
“It’s the Lazarus story,” Priscilla Larsen said. “God allowed him to die, and then allowed all these people … to participate in his miracle.”
Larsen had just returned home from a walk with a friend when he started having chest pains.
Priscilla insisted on driving a reluctant Larry to the Swedish Hospital Issaquah campus to get some help. Larry was in the middle of a massive heart attack and fell unconscious, Priscilla said, as they neared the Alpine Animal Hospital. She was sure he died right there in the car, she said.
“When he lost consciousness in car, that was ‘sudden death,’” said Nathan Zilz, a cardiologist at Overlake Hospital Medical Center. “If no one had started CPR or done defibrillator, he would have died.”
Thus began the chain of events and people coming to his aid that saved Larsen.
A fast-acting Priscilla pulled over into the animal clinic. In pouring rain, veterinarians Catherine Cotton, Carrie Webb and Lisa Roberts and a team of assistants pulled Larry into the building on a dog stretcher and administered the first round of CPR.
“It was just chaotic,” she said.
Bellevue paramedics Greg Clifford and Phil Pierson (contracted with Eastside Fire & Rescue) arrived about four minutes later. He said Priscilla Larsen was smart to go to the animal clinic, rather than continue to Swedish.
“He was essentially dead when we got there,” Clifford said. “If she may have gone to Swedish and not Alpine, that could’ve been the difference.”
As they rushed him to Overlake, shocking him three times to re-start his heart, Larry woke up and sustained his own blood pressure, Clifford said.
“By taking care of himself, he gave us every opportunity to take care of him,” Clifford said.
All Thursday and Friday he lay limp in a hospital bed, she said. “To touch him, it was like he was dead.”
By Friday morning at Overlake, Larry was strong enough to breath over his ventilator, but still unresponsive, Priscilla said. Doctors had induced paralysis to help his body save his energy for just the heart and brain.
Meanwhile, the Larsen family and close friends put out a call for friends around the world to pray for a miracle. Priscilla knew Larry was not done with his life’s purpose, she said.
“God can do miracles. It is not beyond him in this day and age to do miracles,” Priscilla said. “(Larry) still had way too much to do.”
Friends and family across the United States and friends in Kenya, Cambodia, Liberia and other countries prayed for him. One church even fasted at an all-night prayer service for him, Priscilla said.
At 1:20 a.m. Saturday morning, all hell broke loose, she said.
“That was the scariest thing I’ve ever been in,” she said. “Friday night was really horrendous.”
Larry flat-lined, and the doctors sent her to the waiting room. For the next six hours doctors and aids worked to save Larry, shocking him 24 times, according to the record, Zilz said.
“We see every heart beat so we can react very quickly,” Zilz said.
Allowed back in the room later Saturday morning, Priscilla sang to Larry as he lay there. She was still worried he might not make it, even though the doctors had stabilized his weak, quivering heart the previous night.
“The nurses were tremendously worried,” Priscilla said.
At that point, she had begun mentally preparing for life without Larry.
By Saturday afternoon, she was ready to live on her own. She had been at this point once before, when her first husband died in a plane crash. This time, she had more time to grasp it, though.
But as she sang the song to an unresponsive Larry about not being afraid of what may happen, “a peace came over my spirit,” she said.
She had never felt so uplifted or strong.
“I cannot remember feeling like this in my life,” Priscilla said. “I just felt like he was going to be fine now.”
After almost a day of worry and confusion, Priscilla said Larry fluttered his eyelashes at 9 p.m. Saturday. He still didn’t move, but come Sunday morning, Larry could nod his head and reach his hands to family members.
“People have asked me, ‘did you see a light at the end of a tunnel,’” Larry said. “No.”
Larry improved by Jan. 19, and doctors had placed an internal defibrillator in his chest, he said.
Larry said he doesn’t remember anything from the incident.
“In a way I’m glad, because I don’t remember any of the pain,” he said. I don’t remember a thing. I just barely remember coming out of it.”
After a roller coaster of a 10-day stay at Overlake, Larry walked out of the hospital on his own two feet.
Within a few days, he was walking two miles per day near his and Priscilla’s Lake Sammamish home. He said his chest still hurts from all the defibrillator shocks. It bothers him he can’t do even more exercise.
A perk to surviving a heart attack: your friends and neighbors feed you well, the two said.
“Everybody has been so good to us,” Larry said.
He knows he now has a second chance to do some of the things he had set out to, such as world missions and working with teens in Sammamish.
“I think he’s back now,” Priscilla said.
Reporter Christopher Huber can be reached at 392-6434, ext. 242, or chuber@isspress.com.
Comments
8 Responses to “Larry Larsen comes back”
Got something to say?
Before you comment, please note:
- These comments are moderated.
- Comments should be relevant to the topic at hand and contribute to its discussion.
- Personal attacks and/or excessive profanity will not be tolerated and such comments will not be approved.
- This is not your personal chat room or forum, so please stay on topic.
Thank you Chris, for the good story! God was glorified in it all! Good job!
it is so great, to hear how God move in this way if you are out there and do not know the Lord please get to know him Dad Larry and Mum Priscilla know God and God have give time to come back to us praise God !!!! your pastor Foley Smith Sr
GODGIVES MINISTRIES
West Africa Liberia
This is a wonderful article! Larry & Priscilla Larsen are wonderful people, who have tremendous faith in a GREAT God who still is in the business of miracles! We , along with many many others were blessed to be able to pray for Larry’s recovery. So thrilled for Larry!!!!
Thanks so much for sharing your story – we are friends of friends who were praying and it’s so wonderful to hear the happy ending.
Great story. I live in Sammamish and i see people walking to maintain fitness and im really happy to hear that larry and his girl get to take some more walks here. GO larry Go Larry. Thanks for fighting.
Even though we were told all the details while they were happening and everyone in our family were praying for Larry, it is really good to see it all in one story. God is an awesome God, a loving God and a God who can keep our faith strong in the worst of times. Having been on some mission trips to Romania with Larry and Priscilla, I am sure that Larry still has a lot to do.
Yes, good to hear that God is still doing miracles. Go Uncle Larry and Aunt
Priscilla – we will be praying for you still during this time that this incident will
be used for God’s glory.
This was the absolute best front page story I’ve ever read! I, too, was part of that world-wide praying team. We would check our emails and Facebook accounts hourly to get news from Priscilla. She would tell us specifically what to pray for and we’d see God answer prayer after prayer. Thanks for a well written article that tells it like it is!