Jacob’s Story
"oh hon let them have fun 5 or 10 more minutes - then we'll get going."
...what I would give to have the first part of that sentence back...
At that moment, Jacob, your life changed forever. All our lives changed.
We were on Siesta Key beach two days into our summer vacation. It was sunny in the morning ... beautiful ... we had such a fun time...
In the afternoon, we did see some “standard fare” Florida afternoon storms brewing pretty far off to our south, past the public beach...where many, many people were still doing the same thing we were…
Suddenly, a new batch of dark clouds developed and started heading up the beach towards us. I thought it would behave like the other storms we'd witnessed the last few days and move very slowly. I thought maybe, at the most, we weren't leaving early enough to avoid getting rained on…
I was wrong ... this storm came in so, so fast ...
We packed up and were walking towards the beach access path when there was a bright flash of a reddish-orangish light in the darkness of the storm. In this half-second, I saw the sand, dune grass, and buildings over the dune reflecting that light. I felt its heat on the hairs of the back of my neck and smelled the singed air. Then, I hit the ground as an incredible, thunderous crack instantly accompanied the flash.
Then I looked back
And I saw the panic-stricken fear in your mother's eyes.
And I heard Ashley screaming, "NO, NOT JACOB!! PLEASE NOT JACOB!!" - I saw her hands at her head in disbelief and pure anguish.
And then I saw Jacob.
Jacob was on his back on the sand as the nightmare scene was seared into my mind. I started sprinting to him and desperately didn’t want to believe what I already knew: this ONE bolt of lightning in our vicinity, this FIRST bolt of lightning at the start of this storm over us, had struck Jacob directly in the chest.
And Barbara screamed, "HELP, CPR, CALL 911, HELP HELP !!!!!!!"
And the fiercest storm I've witnessed ensued ... straight-line winds .. sand blowing horizontally all around .. lightning everywhere ... everyone around was in danger.
Yet two men ran over to us ... they didn't hesitate ... they knew CPR and started on Jacob after quickly determining he had no pulse and was not breathing ...
And the storm raged on.
All I could do in those first moments was kneel by Jacob and hold his arm and head while these men worked...and pray over and over and over, PLEASE, GOD, don't take my son. Please don't let him die. ONLY YOU, GOD IN HEAVEN, HAVE THE POWER TO SAVE MY SON. ONLY YOU.
These men spent 8,9,10 minutes working on Jacob in the middle of this fierce storm.
Later I learned that one of the men heard me praying...and it gave him some motivation to keep going, exhausted as he was...
At some point, I gave some rescue breaths as well...as a lady near me was doing her best to pass along instructions over the phone...
People were yelling. “need to move!!” “Does he have a pulse?!” “which path is this??” We decided to try to move up the beach-access path to find some shelter from the storm and try to get closer to the main road where paramedics would arrive. We lifted his body and trudged a few yards, but I knew this damn path was a quarter mile long, and there was no close shelter and that we did NOT have time to find any, and we needed to keep blood moving--
..miraculously at this very moment, a police officer came running towards us - he saw us and yelled out, "PUT HIM DOWN!! PUT HIM DOWN!" and we did. The officer immediately started CPR again. He did this for another 5,6,7 minutes until paramedics came running down the path with a stretcher cart.
We picked Jacob up to put him on the stretcher.
Jacob's body was a heavy rag-doll ... lifeless ... and was turning purple.
We ran to the ambulance.
Still storming. Raining, hailing, windy, and lightning...
The officer who did CPR found me and found my eyes and said, "Hey, hey, stay with me, stay with me," and motioned for me to get into the front of the ambulance.
And there we sat in the ambulance for another eternity from the previous eternity of getting Jacob to an ambulance…
While they worked on Jacob in the back of the ambulance, I sat in the front and clenched my guts and cried to God to please spare my son, that only He had the power to do so, please God, don't let him die, please bring him back to us, over and over and over...
We also learned later that the whole family of the men who started CPR also went and prayed together...And as I was in despair. Deep despair. The darkest time. And I cried and raged and couldn't believe I was about to lose my son. My son. Our son. Ashley's brother. Her best bud. Jared's brother. I thought it had been too long. Just too long. There was no way. But I kept praying. I kept praying that God would bring him back to us. That only He had the power.
Finally, we started driving. The driver couldn't tell me anything - "I'm just the driver."
We got to the Sarasota hospital after a 20min drive.
As they rushed Jacob into the ER, they brought me to a small room to wait ... still no one could/would tell me anything about how he was doing. A security guard checked in on me several times. He was kind and offered a blanket and water as I stood in the cold room only in my still-wet trunks waiting to know if you were alive or not. a detective came...a social worker...a chaplain...
they finally came and told me something:
that Jacob was alive, that he had a pulse and was breathing… JACOB WAS ALIVE(written by Jeremiah Brewer)
Jacob Brewer spent two months in the ICU. The lightning had left Jacob paralyzed, and the doctors were baffled as to why. Jacob has traveled to Chicago, Kentucky, and Florida, talking to over 30 specialists. Unfortunately, no one could help Jacob stop the muscles from atrophying at an alarming rate. Jacob could lose his legs. Finally, in February of 2023, Jacob’s parents found a machine that could save his legs; it was located in Vienna, Austria. They traveled to Vienna and bought the device to bring into America to keep their son’s legs. Today, Jacob is still fighting in his recovery. Jacob has to spend 2 1/2 hours twice a day stimming his leg muscles and using a class 4 medical laser up and down his spinal cord and legs. He does physical therapy every day. Jacob is finishing his senior year and hopes to attend college and study neuroscience to help others with nervous system disorders.
Lightning entered Jacob’s chest. He was in the ICU for 2 months.
Traveled to Vienna to save Jacob’s legs
Medical Laser that is used every day to help repair the nerves damaged by the lightning
The Brewers are still fighting! Jacob hopes to walk again some day and to study neuroscience to help others recover from maladies of the nervous system.
