Escape From Death

The Slaybaugh Story

By Rose Slaybaugh

CHAPTER 13

PRAYER OF THANKFULNESS

Thursday morning Roy was sitting up in bed. One of the nurses, Mrs. Humpage, came in eating candy. Roy is fond of candy, and he was hungry. Every time a nurse came in he thought she ought to be bringing him a tray of food, and all they brought him was soup because they thought he couldn't eat anything solid with his jaws broken. What he wanted though was potatoes and gravy! When she came in eating candy, he looked at her as though to say, "Aren't you going to give me a piece?"

She took a piece out of her pocket; she walked across to where Roy was sitting, and I said, "Oh, no, nurse. Surely you wouldn't give him that hard candy! He might try to chew it, and with his broken jaws he will hurt himself."

She said, "Don't worry about that, Mrs. Slaybaugh. He couldn't begin to chew it, but he can suck on it. The doctor is going to wire his teeth together this morning, since he knows now he's going to live."

She walked over and placed the candy between his lips, and Roy ground it to bits. She grabbed her own jaws and said, "I've never seen anything like this!"

They tried to keep Roy quiet. The doctor's orders were to keep him as quiet as possible. The nurses would come in with a hypo and stick it in his arm and send him off to sleep. Just as soon as he'd begin to waken and begin to talk they would come and poke him in the arm again until he fought it off.

He said, "I won't have this any more. I want to go home! "

There wasn't anything left now for the doctor to do but to dismiss us and let us go home. He didn't have to set Roy's jaws. He didn't have to order that artificial ear that he was telling me about. He didn't have to do surgery on Roy's tongue, and he didn't have to order that artificial eye, either.

Roy now has the keenest sight in the eye that was healed. He can read the finest print. Many eye specialists have examined his eye, and they all say the same thing that it is the most remarkable thing that they have seen. Anybody that knows anything about eyes, they say, can see that this is a different eye from the other. The color is brighter and clearer than that of the old eye, and there isn't so much as a scar, although there are many scars on the old eye. It hasn't been very long ago that Roy had to take a test for a California driver's license. He passed the test one hundred per cent. The officer said, "Now we'll see how your eyes are, Mr. Slaybaugh. How far down the card can you read these letters?"

Roy said, "I can read the bottom line if you want."

He thought Roy had been sitting there memorizing the letters, so he said, "We'll just turn this card over. Now," he said, "how far down can you read?"

He said, "I can still read the bottom line, backwards and forwards."

"Why,' the officer said, "you have remarkable sight for a man of your age! What can you do with one eye?" He picked an envelope off his desk and covered over one eye.

Roy said, "I can still read the bottom line backwards and forwards."

"You have the eyes of an eagle!"

Roy came home and told me about it. "Rose, it was a good thing that he covered up my old eye, or I couldn't even have seen the cardboard."

Roy was getting more and more restless.

I said, "Roy, we can't just walk out of the hospital! We must wait until the doctor dismisses us properly."

"Well," he said, "why doesn't he do it?"

"Maybe he'll be here tomorrow, and we'll ask him about it."

The next day was Sunday. I knew the doctor would most likely be out on his farm. It was Monday, almost noon, before he came. I met him and said, "Doctor, you'd better dismiss that patient of yours. He's going home."

He said, "Take him home. There's not a thing the matter with him. I don't understand what has happened, but take him home."

The nurse overhearing the doctor said, "You don't mean that, doctor! With the shock he's had it will take days, or weeks, for him to learn to walk."

Roy said, "If they'll only bring me some clothes, doctor, I'll show them I can walk."

"Nurse, fix him up, and let him try his legs," the doctor said.

They placed his robe and slippers on him and then let the railing down. He pulled himself over to one side.

The nurse whispered to me, "You get over on the other side, Mrs. Slaybaugh, and be ready to catch him. He's not as smart as he thinks he is."

But he was! Out into the hall he went, turned to the right, and we never stopped until we reached the nurses' dining room. The table was set for noon lunch. The head nurse pulled out a chair and said, "Roy, sit down with us; have lunch with us out here today." After eating a big dinner, he started back for the door that led down through the hallway to his bed.

The nurse said, "Roy, you don't have to go back to that bed. Come into my living room. Sit down here on the davenport. So many people want to come in and see you. They want to come in and see the man who was healed by a prayer."

Now we could go home, but the nurses begged us to stay one more night. Tuesday morning I had everything packed, ready to go, and Roy said, "Rose, go get the car; we're going home."

Our poor car! I hadn't told Roy about it yet. I couldn't tell him what a wreck it was. But I looked across the street and there was our neighbor, Charley Doneca. He worked at the garage across the street. I called to him and asked him if he would like to do something for us.

"Yes, what is it?"

I said, "Would you like to take us home?"

"Yes, whenever Roy is ready, just let me know."

"He's ready right now."

"Well," he said, "wait until I finish filling this car with gas." Then he stepped into his car and drove across the street, and Roy and I walked out of the little hospital together. When we got home, as soon as we got into the house and closed the door, we dropped down on our knees and praised the God of heaven for what He had done for us, for hearing and answering our prayer, and strengthening our faith!

In the afternoon Roy said, "Rose, I'd like to walk down to the beach. I'd like to go down there and have a prayer meeting.,

"Roy, don't you feel weak?"

"I never felt better in all my life," he said.

We walked down, and there by the side of God's mighty ocean we knelt and again thanked Him for His goodness, mercy, and love.

Now I'm going to add Roy's story of what he experienced during the healing:

"I would like to add my testimony and tell you what I experienced during the time of my healing. I will try to give an exact account of it. There appeared at the foot of my bed a heavenly being, beautiful beyond description. It was head and shoulders taller than an ordinary man. I say `man' because he was masculine-looking. His hair was light gold in color and hung in ringlets about his head. He was clothed in a beautiful white robe which hung in pleats from his shoulders to the floor and gathered at the waist by a golden girdle with tassels hanging down his right side. He gave me a very reassuring look, but I hardly dared look at him. He said, 'I have come to raise you up again.' And with that he reached over and touched me. It must have been just as the minister anointed me, for a great fear and trembling came over me, and I became fully conscious. He looked the same as he did in my semi-unconscious state, but he was so glorious I had to take my gaze away from him. I looked about the room and wondered where I was and why all these people, our friends and relatives, were there, and why they were weeping, but my mind was on this beautiful being at the foot of the bed. I was almost afraid to look back, and when I did, he had disappeared. He must have known that I couldn't take another look, and live. If this being is an indication of what heaven will be like, or what we will be when we have put on immortality and have been changed 'in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump,' (1 Corinthians 15:52), heaven will be cheap at any price we pay or any sacrifice we must make. Let us all be faithful to the end."

 

CHAPTER 14

TESTIMONIES OF WITNESSES

I’ve have many testimonies from reliable people confirming this healing, as well as the doctor's and nurses' testimonies. We also have a set of X-ray pictures taken after the healing, showing what the Lord did. Following are some of the statements made by those who actually witnessed the healing:

"To whom it may concern:

"I have been asked to give a testimonial in regard to the miraculous healing of Roy Slaybaugh after he was so critically injured in a car wreck. It has been long enough since Roy Slaybaugh was injured that I have forgotten some of the details, but I'll never forget the change that took place in his condition in the space of twelve hours. On the evening of August 20, 1945, the hospital phoned and said they needed me to 'special' a case nights.

When I went on duty at 8:00 P.M. I was given the case history. He had been injured the day before. There was a fracture above the left eye extending over and above the left ear. The cerebral fluid was oozing from the left eye and ear. There were cuts on the forehead and the left ear was torn off. These injuries had been repaired, but his condition was very serious, and the doctor gave us very little hope for his recovery. I was with him until 8:00 A.m. Tuesday, carrying out the doctor's orders for administering penicillin, irrigating the eye every two hours, and giving sedatives to keep the patient as quiet as possible. Tuesday night the orders were the same. After midnight his condition was worse-pulse weakening, fingernails getting blue.

When I went off duty at 8:00 A.M. Wednesday, I felt very sure he would not live through the day. I called the hospital at 5:00 P.m. to find out his condition, and they told me to come and that he had improved and they needed me. When I stepped into the room that night, I was shocked and surprised at the change. It was miraculous. There were smiles of hope and confidence on the faces of Mrs. Slaybaugh and her brother, and when I looked at my patient I could well understand why. His color was good, his pulse strong, and he was rational. He knew Rose when she spoke to him. It didn't seem possible. But Mrs. Slaybaugh told me she had called in the ministers of the church and had prayed and anointed him according to God's Word in James 5:14 and 15. This was done during the noon hour, and the change came immediately.

From that time on he improved rapidly and soon needed my services no longer. How happy I will be if my testimony will help people to realize that God is the same today as He always has been. But we must believe His promises enough to ask His help in the name of Jesus. I am happy to give God the glory, for I am convinced that Roy Slaybaugh would not be with us today if we had depended solely on medical science.

(Signed) Jennie Schneidau, R.N."

"After we prayed and anointed Roy in the name of the Lord, I went out to have a little lunch and have a tire changed. This consumed a little more than an hour. When I went back into the hospital, the nurse, Mrs. Floyd Humpage, who was caring for him, was seated at the window crocheting. I stepped close to her and asked, 'How is Mr. Slaybaugh? Is there any change?' Her reply was, 'Wonderful! He is normal.' I said no more to her, but I have met and talked with her recently in company with another minister, Leo Van Dolson. She gave us a wonderful testimony on the healing of Mr. Slaybaugh. This was marvelous, because when we entered the hospital, this same nurse was swabbing the mouth of the patient, from which was flowing a brown fluid, which apparently ceased when she left the room. May God use this testimony to His honor and glory.

T. L. Thuemler, Minister, Crescent City, California."

"When Roy Slaybaugh of Gold Beach, Oregon, was injured in a highway accident, his attending physician told Mrs. Slaybaugh that her husband was fatally injured and could not live. Mrs. Slaybaugh then phoned a minister in Crescent City to come at once and pray for the restoration of her husband. The minister responded; Roy was anointed, and prayer was offered for his recovery. The response, immediate and marvelous, brought restoration and renewed life, and Roy was soon getting about as usual. This experience aroused much comment throughout that entire section and presently reached our town of Brookings, about forty miles away. Mrs. C. P. Watt, an experienced registered nurse, and I decided to call on this doctor for further inquiry into this unusual experience. We discussed the case in considerable detail. When asked if he considered that prayer had anything to do with the remarkable recovery of the patient, the doctor replied, 'That enters the realm of the supernatural, in which I have had no experience. But from a medical standpoint, Roy Slaybaugh had no right to live, but he did live.'

B. W. Marsh and Mrs. C. P. Watt, R.N."

"In company with Pastor Thuemler, I visited Mrs. Humpage, the nurse on Roy's case in Gold Beach, some time ago. Mrs. Humpage was convinced that Roy's healing was miraculous and stated that she was the nurse that gave him the hard candy. It was also my privilege to visit at a later date with Mrs. Jennie Schneidau, a member of our Gold Beach church, and she told me that she was certain that it was only a miracle that spared Roy's life. She, of course, was one of the nurses that took care of Roy and was converted as the result of that experience.

Leo Van Dolson, Minister."

"I heard the crash; I ran to the scene of the accident and found Brother Slaybaugh slumped over the wheel. I shook him and talked loudly so I might arouse him, but he never moved. His head was bent over like that of a dead man, and most of one ear was gone. We called on Mrs. Humpage a few days ago, and she said, 'Anyone who knows anything about God knows it was a higher power than medical science that healed Mr. Slaybaugh.'

Fred Wimer."

"To Whom It May Concern:

"This is to certify that from August 19, 1945, to

September 11, 1945, Mr. Roy Slaybaugh was under my care at the Gold Beach Hospital, suffering from injuries sustained in an automobile accident. After examining the patient and taking X rays, I told Mrs. Slaybaugh the extent of her husband's injuries and gave her very little hope for recovery.

"His skull was fractured, and the cerebral fluid was coming from the left ear and eye. I told her there was no way of stopping it. The left ear had been pretty much torn loose in such a manner that it sagged down. This was repaired, and it healed in very good condition. It looked for a time as though he might lose the sight of the eye, if not the eye itself, and there was some conversation about an artificial eye if it came to that. I told her if the sight was lost in the left eye, he would not be blind, as the sight was not injured in the right eye;, X ray indicated fracture of the left lower maxilla and less definitely of the right but not complete.

"During this time and for four or five days Mr. Slaybaugh was unconscious."

Roy's accident occurred in August. The first day of Decembei of that same year, Pastor Nightingale, who was pastor of the tabernacle church in Portland, Oregon, conducted a special "Slaybaugh" baptismal service. Six young Slaybaughs-Joe's two sons and their wives and two nieces-took their stand for Christ, went down into baptism with their Lord and Saviour, and became members of the church.

*The doctor's name and address are on file with the publishers.

 

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