122. 58 minutes gone, then a heartbeat with Luanne Redenius

A heart monitor goes blank, the hallway feels empty, and the next minutes stretch into something you never forget. We’re releasing this on Mother’s Day on purpose, because this holiday can carry a lot of emotion, and sometimes the most honest gift is a real story told with trembling gratitude. My mom joins me for a vulnerable conversation about why it’s hard to share personal testimony, how easily people can misread our intentions, and why feeling “less than perfect” can make us stay quiet when our story might help someone else. 

Then we step into the miracle that changed our family: the day my dad, Gary, suffered a “Widowmaker” heart attack. My mom walks through the details from the perspective of a wife and a longtime healthcare worker, from the first “it’s probably indigestion” moment to the decision to go to the hospital, the tests that looked fine, and the storm outside that mirrors the chaos inside. She describes the shock of seeing the monitor showing nothing, the certainty of being widowed, and what it means to wait while staff work to revive someone you love. 

You’ll hear the theme that threads it all together: gratefulness is essential, and miracles show up in both the dramatic moments and the quiet ones. If you need a reminder to look for the good when plans change, this one is for you. Subscribe & share it with someone who needs hope today, and leave a review with one big or small miracle you’ve seen lately.

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Transcript

Mother’s Day, Prayer, And Perspective

Nancy Bruscher 0:00

Welcome to Ordinary People Extraordinary Films. I'm your host, Neonky Breoscher, and I'm so glad you're here. Today we begin to put a line on Mother's Day. I know Mother's Day can bring a lot of emotions for different people. And I just want you to know I'm praying for you. If you've got a specific prayer, please reach out to our website, generationsgenerations.com, and go to the podcast tab where you'll find a place to submit a prayer request. On my last episode, I heard that this episode was supposed to air on Easter. But my plans didn't go the way I wanted them to. When my plans came out, it's honestly really hard for me. Are you someone who rolled with the purchase well? But maybe this delay is actually a good thing, because today's gets on Mother's Day with my mom no way and reviewed it. I cannot wait for you to hear this truly incredible miracle story. The audio is a little quieter in parts of this episode. As my mom heard the story of my dad having a heart attack and being gone for 58 minutes. You can hear the emotion as she relives those moments. While there is so much gratitude and thankfulness for the miracle that my dad came back to life, there are also still a lot of emotions connected to that day. I think you'll hear all of that in this conversation. Let's get started. Welcome to Ordinary People Extraordinary Things. I'm here with my mom. Hi Mom. Hello. Is it hard to be on?

Luanne Redenius 1:40

Yes. Yes, yes, yes.

Nancy Bruscher 1:43

Are you so excited? No. No. Back to my what I said. My word was good. Why do you think it's so hard to share our stories? The personal. Somebody may misinterpret it. Because in all honesty, we are I am far less than perfect, so why would I have reason to share? No, that's really good. That's really insightful. I like that.

Luanne Redenius 2:16

So Luanne, what are three words or phrases to describe yourself? It it depends on who you ask. I've been told I'm caring. I said that, yeah. And others. Uh and I do care about people. I I I truly care. You don't have to do huge things, just little things. To make the world a better place. So when I say caring, you know, it's not like giving a hundred dollars to the flute pantry.

Speaker 4 2:40

It's making somebody smile or I think I have a unique sense of humor, and I don't think I'll say much more than that. I'm not real sure how to say this, but my word is is good. If if I say yes or yeah, I'll do that, yes I'll be there, yes, I can help you with that, it means yes. Your yes be yes and your no be no. And pretty much it makes life kind of simple that way. You know? Well, I like to laugh. And there's plenty of things for me to laugh at myself.

Speaker 1 3:12

Well, I wanted to focus on some miracles. I think a miracle can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people and could probably give literally hundreds or thousands maybe of miracles in your life if you really wanted to. But the one that I was thinking of is my dad had a heart attack.

Nancy Bruscher 3:30

They call it the Widowmaker, I think.

The Widowmaker And 58 Minutes Gone

Gratitude, Faith, And Your Miracles

Speaker 4 3:32

It was August the 26th, 2017. We were days from celebrating our 40th anniversary and leaving to to the northeast. Our bags are packed and pretty much packed. Well, there's another personality trait. And it was a Saturday morning and we had decided to go see our grandson play some flag football. He was parking in the car and he just said, I have some indigestion. I just I just feel heavy, and he in fact tried to convince me that maybe he had swallowed his iced tea wrong. I had worked healthcare for 45 years. And at that time, something triggered the way he said it. And he touched his chest, and we had gone through an amazingly stressful summer. His mother had just passed away, and just business. I suggested that we go to the hospital and just quote, park in in the parking lot and see what happens. He agreed, which kind of surprised me. And um we went and sat in the parking lot, and it wasn't it was seconds later, and he was willing to get out and go in. And they did everything, as far as I could tell, by the book, you know, blood tests and kids. And his pain kept getting worse, but they could find nothing, and they were communicating with um a bigger hospital um cardiologist. Now everything was too good, just keep him there, and so we were waiting for a few more hours to pass so that they could repeat another blood test. He was hurting. I told them that I was gonna go out to the waiting room and visit my daughter and and I'd be back in a little bit. He was the only only one in ER. I left and I was talking to my other daughter, your sister. We were trying to decide if we should order some lunch or you know what we were gonna do, and we noticed that, looked out the window, and there was a crazy storm. High winds, the sky was a different color, torrential rain. So I I went back into the ER and there was no one around. Like no nurses, no staff. No staff, no nurses. Gary was laying on the table, and I looked at the monitors and I thought, well, that's odd. Why would they disconnect that monitor? Because it was showing, you know, his heart rate and his blood pressure, and and it wasn't showing anything. And I thought, they unplugged that. No, they didn't unplug it. He was gone. He was gone. I went and I started shouting, yelling, and yelling, and shouting that I needed some help. And they did come. And the storm kept getting worse, and the minutes passed, more time passed, and then more and more of the staff were coming in. Eventually, a long time. They came and got me and told me that they had been able to revive. Gary not fully understanding months later went and talked to him. And it had shocked him eight times. Over fifty-eight minutes had passed. Not counting where you didn't even know. Right, where no one knew. So he was completely gone? Like he didn't have any kind of There was nothing. Nothing. Not like no brain like Well, they were monitoring his heart. There was no B B B. Okay. There was no pulse. And you don't even know how long Well, it wasn't that long because I had just I mean, are we talking five maybe five minutes or something? Maybe five, yeah. You really can't explain it. Yeah, he was shocked eight times. It was fifty-seven minutes from the time that they started working on him to the time that they that he responded. He was 61 years old at at that time. He was with us at the age of 70, still working twenty, thirty hours a week, active and happy. Were they afraid he would have brain damage? Oh yeah. Has he ever said that he went to heaven? He does not remember any part of that. No, the only thing he remembers is he remembers being in there when we first came. He doesn't even remember like even the hour or two hours of the prep, you know, while they were doing the blood work and and all that. And then the next thing he remembers is being in the second hospital where um they had done the surgery and he was restrained. He didn't know why. He he did not know. What was it like to see your husband of almost 40 years laying there? I was fully aware that I was widowed. I mean, there was no there was nothing else. I mean he was gone. And the longer it took him, the more I knew that the outlook was very virtual. So every day is precious. Thanks for sharing. Yeah.

Speaker 3 8:30

What's your favorite Bible verse? It's J Joshua 24, 15. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. What are you grateful for? My family. I have a beautiful family. Life is good and life is full, and and I get to share it with somebody.

Speaker 4 8:48

So thanks for sharing. On ordinary people, extraordinary things, your story, it's his glory.

Nancy Bruscher 8:56

Thanks for listening. What are the big and small miracles you see in your own life? I'm relearning, especially during seasons when plans are changing, that gratefulness seeing the good and recognizing the miracles is essential. If this episode occurs, share it with someone who may need a reminder of the miracles in their own life.generations.com, generations.