Today's Miracle Photography: Graham Mitchell

Fri, 11/24/2017 - 12:28pm — Diane Dyer

I want to start off this story by saying if you don't know Graham Mitchell personally, you're missing a mighty big blessing. I've known Graham a few years now and I remember the first time we met, it was when he owned Hadley One Stop, I just fell in love with him. Such a kind man, to everyone I've ever heard him speak to, and boy oh boy could he tell some hunting and fishing tales. Any time I've ever heard anyone talk about Graham Mitchell, it was nothing but wonderful things.

When I called and talked to Graham about sharing his story with me, he never even hesitated, I believe his response was "when you wanna do it?" I want to thank he and Leslie for graciously welcoming me into their home and sharing this miracle with me so I could share just how wonderful our God is with everyone else.
When Graham began telling me his story, he started with the day before the accident. He said on the Sunday before, he had gone fishing and of course he caught a bunch of crappie (now whether that's a fishing tale or the truth I'm not sure because it came from Graham) and thought to himself "it's going to be a good week." He said he was riding the four wheeler around the farm and drove by this tree and said "I'll cut your *** on Monday. As you can tell, logging was something Graham had a passion for even off the job. But threatening this tree was probably not the best move he's made. That same tree was the tree that changed his life forever.

On October 27, 2014 Graham went to the woods, just a regular day as owner of Mitchell Logging same thing he had done for the past 4 plus years. He started the day out by cutting six trees and then went to the tree that he had "threatened" the day before, to hold up to his word. Graham went through the process with me on how to cut a tree, nothing I ever knew anything about. This man does. He went through the steps of what he did, as far as cutting the tree from the correct angle and so on so forth..and from that point on, the story has been told to him because he has no memory of what happened for 45 days following the accident.

Graham had worked for himself, by himself for all the years up until 2014. He said he never wanted to hire anyone else because he was afraid of someone getting hurt, never ever thinking it would be himself. But in 2014, he had hired a helping hand, Jonathan Johnson, to run the skidder and do some mechanical work for him. Graham doesn't remember any of the events after cutting the tree, but has been told by Jonathan how the events unfolded.
Jonathon told Graham he didn't know why, but for whatever reason after he cut this tree, Graham took off running with the chain saw ,away from the tree. The tree Graham had cut, landed in the split of another tree. One of the limbs from the split tree fell on Graham, and knocked him down, sprang up, and fell on him again. He said Jonathon said after the first lick, Graham, for some unknown reason, got up on his knees, and when the tree came back down, it finished knocking Graham to the ground again, this time, not to get back up. Graham did have a hard hat on, he said you could see where the limb hit. I can't even imagine if he hadn't been wearing the hard hat.

Graham talked to Brian McKinney, one of our incredible EMS folks, after the accident to ask him some questions about the accident, since Brian was on the scene to help with Graham. He asked Brian if he was breathing when he got to him, Brian said yes but he knew he needed help. Graham said (per Brian) they literally had to pull his tongue up out of his mouth to put the airline behind it.
After getting him out of the woods and loaded into the ambulance, they met the life flight helicopter and Graham went on a helicopter ride with his life hanging in the limbs (no pun intended). He was flown to University of Louisville hospital while friends of Graham's went and found his wife and daughter and broke the news to them of the tragic event.
When I asked Graham what all injuries were obtained during all this and below is the list he rattled off...absolutely unreal:
• left lung collapsed
• 2 rods, 16 screws in his back
• brain injury front and back
• ten broken ribs
• shoulder broke in 4 places
• 23 staples in his head
• 9 and 10 vertebras were crushed (compression fracture)
• tracheotomy
Graham was kept out by drugs for 5 days but really knows nothing about the next 47 days after the accident. As if the accident wasn't enough to deal with, after his first blood transfusion, he developed MRSA (staph infection) not once, but twice. Along with his heart being so irregular and unable to get it regulated enough for the anesthesiologist to feel comfortable enough to put him out for surgery, so it delayed his back surgery for several days, which he desperately needed done.

As Lesli said, most people would have never survived the injury itself, much less everything that happened while in the hospital. The complications just kept piling up and delaying things that needed to be done to "fix" Graham. Lesli said his whole body was black, and she stressed black, from the blows when the tree hit him. Leslie said Graham doesn't know the extent of the injuries and Graham's response was "but I know what caused the injury." That will be something that he, nor anyone will ever be forgetting.
The total stay in the hospital amounted to 47 days. Most of which Graham remembers nothing. He had psychosis, and being honest, I had to ask Leslie what that meant. For those of us that don't know, it's a very serious mental disorder that basically is a loss of contact from reality. There were no "days" of the week, there was no "time" there was no anything but just laying, day after day after day. After dismissal from the University of Louisville hospital, Graham was moved to Sky Rehab in Bowling Green for the next 10 days. He now works out with a personal trainer at the First Baptist Church there in Bowling Green to continue building his strength.
To see Graham now, it's truly amazing to me to see all these injuries listed and believe this man is up walking, driving some, (he tells me he can drive better than he can walk)and talking about all of this because in all honesty, this man should not even be here. God was not done with him yet. He is truly a walking, talking miracle and God has a plan for him.
Graham and I talked prognosis and crazy as it sounds, the prognosis is actually good. The doctors say 1-2 years on the brain injury, though Graham thinks it will be more like 2-5. But anyway you look at it, it's a miracle that they are even talking "healed."
He feels like a two year old most of the time because he can't do a lot of things on his own anymore right now. I love what Leslie said when Graham was talking about this; She reminded him about how much worse it could be and he said "yep, I could be dust on a field. Leslie said "not just dust on a field, because if your faithful, that would be heaven and that's not so bad". To come out of an accident like this and come out this good, it's nothing but a miracle. Leslie keeps reminding Graham that God spared him, spared him a lot and she doesn't mean just death.

Graham told me that when this happened, it was the first time in his life he was ever actually scared. Well, I couldn't imagine anyone being less that scared. When you wake up in a big hospital room with all these tubes and wires and craziness and you have NO idea how you got there or why you there.Graham looked me right in the eye and said "I will never cut another tree, I have no desire to." Well, as with anyone else I'm sure, I was not surprised by that statement.
Even though Graham, by a long shot, was the one physically most devastated and changed by this accident, I know it had to effect Lesli's life as well as their daughter Kassie. I asked Lesli how this has changed her life, Graham laughs and says "well that's a paragraph in itself."

"Graham was a big strong man, my whole family are little people, he did everything for us." She continued by saying that he will be strong again, but in the mean time, she will continue to take care of him and that they are so thankful and they are so blessed.
I love the fact that through all this Graham has not lost his sense of humor. I have to share the shower story he shared with me. When Graham took showers, they wanted someone in there with him so if he was to fall, at least someone would be there to call 911. He said he got out of the shower one day, and he saw this flashing. He looked up thinking the lights were going out but no they were fine. He looks in the mirror behind him and there's Lesli taking pictures of him. He said "what are you doin"!!! She said "I want you to see what you look like." He said" I know what I look like, I look like a 90 year old Korean man." Graham has lost an extensive amount of weight through this whole ordeal but again, praise God we get to see him like this.
Again, I'm so blessed to have gotten to hear Graham's story and visit with he and Lesli. Graham is another reason why I love what I do, to prove Miracles are real!!
The first ten photos are ones that Lesli was kind enough to share with me. They are in chronological order from the time she walked into the hospital at Louisville to the time he came home.
The following photos are ones I took Wednesday of this sweet couple that are literally living out Today's Miracle.

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About Debby:
In 2014, I felt a calling from God to change the course of my photography. Here is a little info on Today's Miracle Photography:

Memories last forever; I have a deep passion for photography and writing, and have had for many years. I wanted to tie these two together and use my passion for the glory of God. When our granddaughter Lexi (not by blood) was born, and shortly passed, I felt God wanted me to share her story, from that point on, I've felt that calling. To reach out to people that have had miracles performed in their lives, to bring awareness to terminally ill people, people that have lost loved ones, people that struggle with addictions, just various aspects of life that God works miracles in.
God works miracles everyday, share yours with me and lets share it with the world. I believe these people I photo shoot and write about need prayer and the best way to start a prayer chain and praise God, is with a big group of people that will share all over the world. No miracle is to great or small to praise God for.

I have a page on Facebook named Today's Miracle Photography, please follow me there to capture these incredible people's story's and photos as well.

Debby Lanham