DIVINE INTERVENTIONS: A Walking Miracle

Michael Hudson miraculously survived a severe head injury. Michael recounts his past as a drug dealer and manufacturer, his time in prison, and the life-altering accident that led to his head being run over by a truck.

Despite grim predictions from doctors, Michael survived a risky surgery and a medically induced coma. After waking up, he experienced a profound transformation, attributing his survival and change of heart to divine intervention.

Michael now serves as a licensed minister and serves at his local church, using his past experiences to inspire and guide others.

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DIVINE INTERVENTIONS: A Walking Miracle
GUEST: Michael Hudson
Season 3, Episode 39

Ric Shields (00:00):

I'm talking today with Michael Hudson, a guy whose head was run over by a truck. Michael, you were taken to a hospital and the emergency room staff and neurosurgeon gave your family some pretty grim news. What did the surgeon tell them?

Michael Hudson (00:15):

Well, they did Ric. What they told my mother on her birthday actually was that they were going to do the surgery because my brain was swelling and putting pressure on my brainstem. So, we had to have emergency surgery and they told her that there was a 98% chance I would die in the surgery alone. And that if I did make it through the surgery that it was going to be highly likely that I wouldn't be able to walk or talk right ever again.

Ric Shields (00:40):

And Michael, what happened?

Michael Hudson (00:42):

Well, I'm here talking to you, aren't I, Ric?

Ric Shields (00:45):

I'm Ric Shields and I'm talking with Michael Hudson. I'm calling today's episode, Divine Interventions: A Walking Miracle. You're listening to the DoorWays® Ministry Network podcast.

(01:04):

Michael, how did you end up in the middle of the road with a severe head injury?

Michael Hudson (01:10):

I don't really have no recollection of any of the event. I do know is my ex-wife says that I was trying to take the truck from her and I fell out the back of a truck. And

Ric Shields (01:20):

Well, if you were trying to take the truck from her, how were you in the back of the truck? I don't know how you'd get that from her if you're in the back of the truck.

Michael Hudson (01:27):

I don't either. I don't really know any details. That's just the story I was told.

Ric Shields (01:34):

At the time were you, because you'd been using drugs up to this point for quite a while, were you on drugs do you think?

Michael Hudson (01:40):

I was Ric. This is, that's it. The funny thing is that night, I had actually been in the process of manufacturing drugs that night, the next morning. Matter of fact, that's the one of the last things I remember was making drugs and doing drugs. And then the next thing I remember, I woke up in a hospital.

Ric Shields (02:00):

This is pretty crazy.

Michael Hudson (02:02):

Yeah.

Ric Shields (02:02):

And I wasn't there to see it, but many people that I know are testifying and telling me the story of this. So, this is not like a story that just got made up and put out there by you and whoever.

Michael Hudson (02:15):

Yeah.

Ric Shields (02:15):

Your story begins really several years earlier. By the time you were 12 years old, you were already selling drugs. A couple of years later you started making drugs. Eventually you got caught, went to jail, and you were looking like at a 135-year sentence. But something changed. Can you tell us about what happened there?

Michael Hudson (02:37):

Well, during the court period, I was in jail the whole time. And they offered me a ton of years and I was…

Ric Shields (02:46):

One hundred and thirty-five.

Michael Hudson (02:47):

Yeah, it's a lot. And I told the district attorney, listen, I'm not going to sign for that. We're going to take this to a jury trial. And we did. And about, it was about 11 months later we're at jury trial. And the district attorney said that the drugs had been lost and the guns had been lost. And they had me for possession of a precursor.

Ric Shields (03:11):

What does that mean?

Michael Hudson (03:12):

That means I had a substance that I should have had a license to have possession of.

Ric Shields (03:18):

Oh, okay.

Michael Hudson (03:19):

So, I had red phosphorus and they said I had it in the presence of a minor child. So, they charged me with child endangerment which carries three years. And I actually signed for three years.

Ric Shields (03:32):

So, from 135 years to three years.

Michael Hudson (03:35):

Yeah.

Ric Shields (03:36):

That, that sounds like God is really looking out for you in the first place.

Michael Hudson (03:40):

Well, not, not in the mind of a 20-year-old drug addict. It was an ego for me and I thought, I'm good and they're not good, and I'll do this again. It wasn't until years later, Ric, that I, that I realized how much God's had his hand on me.

Ric Shields (03:55):

Michael, when you were a small child, your grandpa was the pastor of church here in Tulsa, and you, it wasn't unusual for you to go to church, go to Sunday school, and then over a process time things changed. I think you told me that your father's family, they were the church going part of the family, your mother's family, not so much.

Michael Hudson (04:15):

That's right.

Ric Shields (04:16):

And did your parents divorce? Is that what happened?

Michael Hudson (04:19):

They were divorced when I – I never remember them living together.

Ric Shields (04:22):

Okay, so they were divorced by the time, maybe before you were born or shortly afterwards, if that's possibly the case.

Michael Hudson (04:29):

It was shortly after I was born.

Ric Shields (04:32):

And so along the way then you're living with your mother and you're having a whole lot more opportunity to be with her, part of the family who again, was not the “let's go to church” side of the family?

Michael Hudson (04:45):

No, they were very opposite of that. There was always drugs and alcohol involved in the years I was growing up.

Ric Shields (04:56):

You get to watch this, at one point you had an uncle who offered you a pretty large amount of marijuana to make available to sell to your friends. And you thought, Hey, look at this. I can make money doing this.

Michael Hudson (05:08):

Exactly what happened. He had a lot of it because he sold drugs and he didn't really sell marijuana, so people would trade him marijuana for methamphetamines. And he let them, and then yeah, at some point it was available to me and I sold every bit of it at school.

Ric Shields (05:28):

And then you began to learn how to make methamphetamines?

Michael Hudson (05:33):

I did.

Ric Shields (05:33):

At what age? Like 14 years old.

Michael Hudson (05:35):

About 14 years old. Right before I turned 15. Yeah.

Ric Shields (05:39):

And you're not just making it, you're selling it, too.

Michael Hudson (05:42):

Yeah, now we're selling it. We were quick to figure out that methamphetamines made more money than marijuana.

Ric Shields (05:48):

I don't know how old you were, but at 14, that's, that's pretty sharp being able to figure that out. <Laugh>.

Michael Hudson (05:55):

Yeah. And so yeah, that's what we did. I played football and I sold and made drugs and that was about the extent of growing my teenage years.

Ric Shields (06:06):

So, the first time actually, the first time you went to jail, that was a result of a raid, is that correct?

Michael Hudson (06:13):

Yes, sir.

Ric Shields (06:14):

Police came to your house. What were they looking for? Who were they looking for?

Michael Hudson (06:18):

Well, the first time they were actually looking for one of my friends who had a warrant for his arrest. They found him there, but they also found everything to manufacture there. And instead of detaining me and going back to get a warrant, they didn't, they just took the drugs and arrested me. And because of that it was illegal search and seizure and I was out of jail the next morning.

(06:42):

And you would think that would maybe throw some caution that we need to do something different, but it didn't. I just, I continued to do what I was doing and then one month later I got caught with quite a bit of methamphetamines. And that's when the 135 years.

Ric Shields (07:01):

Methamphetamine and guns.

Michael Hudson (07:03):

And guns, yeah.

Ric Shields (07:05):

Because you were also trading guns for methamphetamine, is that correct?

Michael Hudson (07:10):

Yeah. Well, I was, yeah, I was buying guns with methamphetamines. Yeah.

Ric Shields (07:15):

So that's the first one. There's another time you went to prison.

Michael Hudson (07:18):

There is that.

Ric Shields (07:19):

You actually didn't go to prison this time. You went to jail?

Michael Hudson (07:21):

I went to jail. I actually went to prison and then, and then prison put me in jail. The overflow for prison was a jail.

Ric Shields (07:29):

So then there's a second time.

Michael Hudson (07:31):

Yeah, that's the second.

Ric Shields (07:32):

What's the second time? What happened there?

Michael Hudson (07:34):

The second time I was doing what all the bad guys do. I was out at 3:30 in the morning. I'm going to assume that the, the police officer knew who I was because he actually made a turn in front of me and as soon as he seen me, he turned his lights on. And now he made a U-turn and got behind me and said I made an illegal left-hand turn. But, but I didn't. He instantly started looking for drugs and it took him a couple times looking through the car, but he found them. And so, I went back to jail for possession with intent to distribute.

Ric Shields (08:07):

You're listening to the DoorWays® Ministry Network podcast. I'm Ric Shields, and today I'm talking with Michael Hudson, a guy who really is a walking miracle. Michael, you went to prison a couple of times. Were you known for your good behavior in prison?

Michael Hudson (08:22):

No. I was well liked by guards and everybody because, well, that was part of my job to get along with everybody or it's real hard to sell drugs in prison. But I did the same thing, Ric, there. I just, I guess being a drug dealer, you have to know people and, and if you don't, you wind up in trouble. And the fact of the matter is, even if you do know people, you still end up in trouble and you just get to know the people you're around and you get to watch the habits that they have. And then you work around those.

(08:56):

And, and so I did the same thing in prison the first time as I was doing out here. There was some pretty crazy things that happened in prison the first time I was there.

Ric Shields (09:07):

It's interesting to me how available drugs are in the prison system. It seems like that would not be the case, but I understand it may be easier to get drugs in prison than it is outside of prison.

Michael Hudson (09:21):

And not only is it easier, but it's because of the amount of money they cost in there so that whatever you would make on the street, Ric, you're going to make twice, maybe three, maybe four times as much for the same amount in prison.

Ric Shields (09:35):

So, let's talk about your good behavior. You've told me the time that you were taken to prison and you were put into a cell with a cellmate, and you got along really well right at first, didn't you?

Michael Hudson (09:48):

At first, right out the gate, we had it not a very big falling out, Ric over a bed of all things. And I'm young and in prison and, and I'm scared. But in my, my 20-year-old mind, I can't be scared. I’ve got to do something about this and people can’t talk to me in any kind of way. And unfortunately, my best idea was to stab this man. That changed everything about prison for me.

Ric Shields (10:14):

How did you stab a guy?

Michael Hudson (10:17):

Well, I had played dominoes with a man and I had beat him and he happened to run a prison store and he had a metal, mechanical pencil and it, and after I won dominoes, he told me I could have anything I want. And so, I told him, Hey, I just, I want that pencil. And he gave it to me, no questions asked.

(10:39):

I went in there and I stabbed a guy three times and flushed the pencil down the toilet and laid down like nothing happened. And while I tried to appear, like nothing happened, everything inside of me was going crazy. I didn't, I didn't know what to think. I didn't know what was going to happen. I was scared.

Ric Shields (10:54):

Michael, again, you grew up going to church. Your grandpa was a pastor, your father's side of the family, they pretty regularly attended church. So here you are in prison. Are you thinking at this time, man, I really need a call out to God, I need his help. Or was that already you were so far away from that lifestyle that didn't even enter your mind?

Michael Hudson (11:14):

No, never did. Never did in there. I just thought I think my ego was so inflated that if the truth be told I what I felt as though I was God of my own world. I was master of my own universe and I had to take care of everything. I was the one responsible for everything that happened to me, for everything that I let happen to me. And I can't say that God ever crossed my mind.

Ric Shields (11:41):

The first time you were in prison for how long?

Michael Hudson (11:44):

Three, I did two days short of a three-year sentence. So, I was there for, I did the whole thing.

Ric Shields (11:51):

And the second time?

Michael Hudson (11:52):

The second time I had a five year sentence and I'd done about 28 months of it in actual prison.

Ric Shields (11:59):

So, then you get out of prison. What's life like when you get out of prison?

Michael Hudson (12:04):

Yeah, the second time, the first time I got out of prison, I stayed sober for a while. The second time, not, not so much, maybe about, maybe about a year, maybe two years. And then everything, yeah, the oil industry had fell out. After that I decided we were going to open up my own shop and so I had a partner and we opened up an auto shop and that quickly just became not much more than a front for selling drugs. We did, we, I mean we worked on a lot of cars and we worked on race cars and we worked on fleet cars, but the majority of that money that was ran through there was still drugs.

Ric Shields (12:45):

So, Michael, how long after this second time in prison, how long was it before the story begins with you in the back end of this truck?

Michael Hudson (12:53):

About three years.

Ric Shields (12:55):

You're with your ex-wife. Was she already your ex-wife at the time? Were you divorced?

Michael Hudson (13:00):

We were.

Ric Shields (13:00):

And where were you going?

Michael Hudson (13:02):

We were back together. We were divorced and still living together.

Ric Shields (13:07):

But you're trying to get the truck back from her.

Michael Hudson (13:09):

That's what she said, but I don't, I have, that's the problem is I don't know. I have no, the very last thing I remember about the accident is making drugs. I was making drugs. I had been to Creek County Courthouse to get some paperwork and I don't remember leaving that parking lot.

Ric Shields (13:28):

So, Michael, you either fell out of the truck, you're pushed out of the truck, you don't know what happened next, but somehow it appears as if your head was actually run over by some vehicle. You've got questions about what really happened, you don't know for certain.

Michael Hudson (13:44):

Yeah, I have pictures of tire tracks on my forehead, Ric. That's what we do have. And I mean, and they appear to be tire tracks. They could be. I mean, I, you fall out of a truck and it and hit your head. Maybe it was road, I don't know. But, in my milk report, the doctor did believe it was, it was that I had been ran over.

Ric Shields (14:02):

They're taken to the hospital. You're in this emergency room and the neurosurgeon says this is not a good situation.

Michael Hudson (14:11):

Yeah, actually, the first neurosurgeon said, this is such a bad situation that I'm not going to do the surgery. I'm not even going to attempt it. And they called another neurosurgeon, Dr. Francis Xavier Rapacki. He got all his training in the military and he did it. And he said, I can't guarantee you anything that this is going to help at all, but he's going to do it. He did the surgery after he got done with surgery, he told my mom, listen, I'm going to go home, take a nap because I can't, I, he had taken off half of the left side of my cap and he said, I can't promise you that I'm not coming back to take the other side off in an hour. We don't know. It's minute-by-minute now.

(14:53):

And so, I'm sure they was all very worried and scared about through that whole situation. But like I said, even after the surgery, I was awake up until all of this happened. And after the surgery they put me in an induced coma. So, it's about three weeks before I wake up.

Ric Shields (15:10):

So, they take off part of your skull and say, there's no guarantee we won't have to take off the rest of the top of this skull. Your mother's there. Who else? Are other family members there with you?

Michael Hudson (15:22):

My aunt is there, my Aunt Pam and my daughter. They were, I mean, I'm sure there's several people that came, but those are the three that stayed there the whole time I was in the hospital.

Ric Shields (15:32):

So, I understand somehow that, that there was communication to a church where your sister was attending.

Michael Hudson (15:40):

My sister was also there. Actually, she had told the church what was going on and Pastor Sarah Taylor and, and Pastor Brian White, they was coming to the hospital. So apparently, they frequented pretty much all the time. I never remember seeing Sarah.

(15:56):

But after I woke up, I was, I was actually getting a cup of coffee and I see Brian walking down the hall. It was one of the first memories I have. I was like, Hey, I freaking know you. And he started laughing. He said, what's my name? And I told him, Well, I don't know your name, I just know you're a pastor. And he about fell on the floor laughing. Because I have never seen Brian. I've been to this, I've been to Carbondale one time with my sister years before, and I can't think of any way I would've remembered him

Ric Shields (16:26):

By the way, just a few weeks ago, Brian White joined us and we talked about the miracle that God did in his life as it related to this brain tumor and the surgery that he had. So, it's, it's like we're on a roll here. We also have an interview with Joe Cook, who also had a brain tumor. So, it's not just that God only does miracles with brains. He does miracles with people's lives and bodies. And I'm just so grateful for these because they're such an incredible story.

(16:53):

Michael, you've told me now, I don't understand the, how this is possible, but I don't understand how it's possible that you ever walked out of the hospital. But you told me at one point that you were told that your brain extruded from your head.

Michael Hudson (17:11):

Swelling. Yeah. So that's what they said. They took a cap off and I don't, I don't know how long it was off. Yeah, I don't know. That would be a question for my parents and the doctor, I guess because I don't know. My mom likes to tell everybody that I would, I had a big soft spot where they took the cap off and I like to play with it all the time. I don't remember any of that stuff.

Ric Shields (17:32):

You have the surgery, then you're put into a medically induced coma.

Michael Hudson (17:36):

Yep.

Ric Shields (17:36):

How long were you in this coma?

Michael Hudson (17:38):

I feel like I was in a coma for about three weeks. I never really looked exactly how long, but I feel like it was about three weeks. My daughter was there one night and I woke up and I pulled the feeding tube out and she woke up and there's blood everywhere. And so, she gets a doctor and I had a pressure sensor in the back of my brain to make sure there was no swelling on my brainstem. She got the doctors in there. They put you to sleep extremely quickly when this is going on. They took everything out and let me wake up because there's not, they were giving me the maximum amount of medicine they can give you to keep you in induced coma at that point. And there’s nothing they can give me.

Ric Shields (18:19):

Michael, you were never supposed to walk again, maybe never talk again. Maybe even hearing your sight. All of these things were to be affected. You wake up out of this coma, you start to get around. How many months did you spend in rehab?

Michael Hudson (18:36):

After the brain surgeon is sure that I'm going to be okay. You know, they're going to suspend your driver's license, they're going to do that. They do that. And then they sent me to this thing called occupational therapy. And so, I had to go to another doctor and I had no idea what occupational therapy was, but there I had to cook macaroni and cheese. I had to do some eye hand coordination exercises, walk upstairs, walk downstairs, very basic things just to make sure that my brain was able to communicate to my body how to operate and proper functionally. And other than, and once I completed that, I had to go there three times. And once I completed that, I was done.

Ric Shields (19:16):

So how many weeks from the time of the accident until you literally walked out of the hospital?

Michael Hudson (19:22):

So, I was in the hospital two days, short of two months. So, I was basically in the hospital for two months.

Ric Shields (19:28):

And you walked out.

Michael Hudson (19:30):

I could have walked out. They will not let you. They put me in a wheelchair to the car.

Ric Shields (19:34):

I'm not surprised at that.

Michael Hudson (19:36):

Yeah, they won't let you walk out of the hospital after you have a brain injury. But yes, my daughter picked me up. When she was there, Ric, I had a patch of hair on my head where they had not shaved it and the rest of my head was shaved. And I guess my oldest daughter thought it was hilarious to take dad out to eat with just this patch of hair on his head because that is hilarious to children.

Ric Shields (19:56):

There you go. This story is amazing, but it's not complete because something really happened then in your heart that brought a complete change to your life. What happened

Michael Hudson (20:08):

After they put my cap back on and before they let me go out of the hospital, he had to take 138 staples out of my head and he had to take a drain out of my head. And when Dr. Rapacki did that, he said, I need you to know that I did everything I could to save your life. And it wasn't enough to save your life. So, you might want to think about who really did.

(20:27):

And then I have two weeks in the hospital to make sure there's no infection in where these, where the scar is at. Yeah. I was left there to think about this. That was where the actual thought of, you know, the church has showed up, thought of sending all these people that have nothing to do with the lifestyle I used to have. And he surrounded me with wonderful people and gave me a place to go. And so, you're just left there to think about what's really going on here.

(20:55):

And I had a thing where I told my daughter when she told me what actually happened that my ex-wife had ran over me. Ric, me and her walked for about eight hours at the hospital. And she said, Dad, are you all right? Because I haven't said nothing. And Ric, the words that came out of my mouth were, you know, I have to kill her.

(21:15):

And I don't think my daughter knew what to think about that, but I went to bed. That was two nights before I got out of the hospital thinking that. And when I woke up, Ric, that was all gone. I didn't think that anymore. As a matter of fact, I owned eight guns that day and I gave them all away the next morning. And so, whatever really happened, whether it was Dr. Rapacki's words or whether it was, I went to bed and God changed everything because that's what I believe. I don't believe that I can go to bed thinking one thing and wake up and that completely be gone on my own power. So, I honestly believe that I went to bed that Michael, I used to be and woke up with a new creation that God created me to be.

Ric Shields (22:00):

What you're telling me is that Michael, you had a salvation experience. How is that today?

Michael Hudson (22:06):

Yeah, it's a journey. It's a journey. Every day I still do things I probably shouldn't be and I talk to God about them. But I went from being a drug dealer to being on staff at Carbondale Assembly of God. I work with our youth and our youth, pastor, Pastor Jeff. Yeah. It's just been a very transformative time in my life.

Ric Shields (22:29):

And you're credentialed through the DoorWays® Ministry Network. You're a licensed minister of the DoorWays® Ministry Network. And we're proud of you, Michael. We really are.

Michael Hudson (22:36):

Thanks for that sir.

Ric Shields (22:37):

Michael, this is such a great story that I really hope people will listen to it and realize that you indeed, when I say “A Walking Miracle,” you really are all of that.

Michael Hudson (22:50):

It was fun that, listen, I got to baptize my niece the day you got my license. But just the beginning of this month, one of my ex-girlfriends that I did a lot of drugs with, I got to drive to Texas and baptize them in a public swimming pool since they got out of prison and take them bibles. And I baptized her and her niece and I took them both Bibles. And it was just really cool to see that other people that knew me one way now see me in a very different light. And it gets to be an inspiration to him. And I'm very thankful for that.

Ric Shields (23:23):

And all the glory goes to Jesus for this.

Michael Hudson (23:25):

Every bit of it.

Ric Shields (23:27):

Nothing that you did to make it all possible. You just surrendered your life and he is bringing amazing changes to you.

Michael Hudson (23:36):

Absolutely.

Ric Shields (23:38):

I love you, friend.

Michael Hudson (23:40):

Love you too, my friend.

Ric Shields (23:44):

I didn't know Michael before his accident, but I've come to know him since. And while it is a remarkable story, his journey of following after Jesus is truly a Divine Intervention. God has worked in his life and Michael is a changed individual.

(24:02):

In Romans 12:2, the Apostle Paul tells us not to “be conformed to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of our minds.” The world would like to conform us to use whatever kind of pressure is necessary to make us like everyone else. But Paul says, we can be transformed, changed into something different when our mind is renewed, when our thoughts change, when our desires change, when we offer ourselves as living sacrifices to a holy God, as our gift of worship to him.

(24:35):

Remember, God made you a one and only original. Don't settle for being a copy of anyone else.

(24:44):

I'd like to hear from you this week. Send me a note at info @ doorways.cc and let me know if we're providing the kind of content that's helpful to you. I'm praying for you and look forward to sharing a new episode with you next week.