A FATHER who was left in a coma after a 10,000-pound block of granite crushed his face less than three inches wide has revealed how a dream saved his life.
Mike Wolo, 52, was working with huge slabs of granite when one of them fell on top of him, knocking his eye out of its socket and stopping his heart.
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Despite dying for six minutes and only having a three percent chance of survival, Mike’s dead friend managed to wake him up.
As his devastated family gathered to say goodbye, they had no idea Mike was having a “very real” drug-induced dream.
He dreamed of a deceased colleague who passed away suddenly a few months before the accident.
He appeared to Mike in a dream saying “it wasn’t his time”.
Mike explained how his friend was sitting on a log in the woods and told him, “Hey, you’re not supposed to be here.
“You’re going to be fine. Do me a favor if you get a chance, check on my family and I’ll see you around.”
Shortly afterwards, against all odds, Mike woke up writhing in agony and desperate for medication.
He described the pain as “horrible” and added: “There are no words to describe what you are feeling except your whole body is screaming, in ridiculous pain, from your feet to your nose.”
He explained how the nurse gave him a button to press that would administer pain relief and said it was just “clicking, clicking, clicking” over and over.
Earlier that day, Mike’s friend convinced him to help with his granite importing business, and although he knew it was “dangerous,” he told himself it would be the last time.
He spoke to The Sun about the nightmare and his difficult road to recovery.
Mike was working inside an open trailer – with a huge slab of stone nearby, waiting to be moved by a crane operator.
Before he even got up from the ground, Mike heard his friend scream and, confused, he started running towards the exit of the container.
But it was too late, and the huge block fell, crushing his head against the wall and “ripping off (his) entire face”.
Everything went black to Mike and above the point of impact the flesh protruded “like a mushroom ready to explode”.
“They (witnesses) said the most disgusting thing to see,” Mike said.
He told The Sun: “They realized they needed to get me breathing again. But I didn’t have a mouth.
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“They said everything was sideways and they could see inside my skull and stuff.
“Three or four of them started taking turns holding my skull.
“They said the blood was gushing out very quickly. So they were just trying to keep it all together and get the parts where they should be.”
He added: “He just crushed everything, the only thing that saved him from chopping off the rest of my head was a piece of wood.”
Mike’s injuries were so severe that paramedics considered him “an organ donor” and were stunned when he later went to visit them in person and thank them for saving his life.
Speaking about the extent of the damage, he said: “It hit me in the left temple and then ripped my whole face to just under three inches wide.”
Mike’s mouth was closed and he was unable to speak or eat normally, relying on a tracheotomy tube to breathe.
His mother was so afraid of how he would react if he saw his reflection that she tried to stop anyone from showing it to him.
Mike said: “You would see people looking at you and looking horrified.”
“I remember the first time I saw myself in the mirror you know the absolute Horror to see how big and gigantic my head was, but it wasn’t symmetrical either.
“It was very misshapen and pointed at the top, and my left side was more stretched out than the right.
There are no words to describe what you’re feeling except that your entire body is screaming in ridiculous pain, from your toes to your nose.
Mike Wolo
“And one eye, my left eye, that exploded out of my head was, you know, put back in, but it’s moving on its own. It’s not moving where I’m trying to look.
“In my right eye, all the blood vessels looked like demon blood, a red eye.
Despite the physical agony he endured, the father said this was not the most traumatic part of his ordeal and that a device meant to help him nearly killed him.
“The hardest part about being crushed to death, not breathing for six minutes and breaking your neck, shoulders and face was not being able to eat,” he said.
“Having my flask, rewired and rebuilt. The trach tube was the worst,” she added.
Although Mike was awake, he was still unwell and died twice more during his hospital stay.
This happened when his breathing tube became blocked and he started choking on his own blood.
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One of these terrifying experiences occurred while Mike was sleeping and a second “crazy” dream meant it was actor Will Ferrell who woke him up and saved him.
He described being in a car where a man in a suit was trying to choke him and he was “losing the battle.”
Mike said, “Out of nowhere, Will Ferrell starts banging on my window, yelling at me to wake up.”
After three major reconstructive surgeries and four weeks in bed, Mike was able to leave the hospital and only had one thing on his mind.
He went to the ambulance station to surprise the team who saved his life and revealed he “scared the hell out of them”.
Mike said when they heard the news that he was alive, they thought it was a Halloween prank.
“I looked horrible, like a Walking Dead cast member with a brace and a hole in my trach tube,” he explained.
After leaving the hospital, Mike still had to deal with the mental side of his trauma and experienced crippling anxiety and depression.
He added that he had to stop working for “a few years” and felt like “a burden on society”.
I remember the first time I saw myself in the mirror you know the absolute horror of seeing how big and gigantic my head was
Mike Wolo
“I was mentally traumatized. It took me eight years to feel confident in my new face,” Mike said.
Despite the terrifying ordeal, he didn’t let anything get in the way of his love of the outdoors and was back on a snowmobile just three months after the accident.
He also discovered a passion for soccer at the age of 40 and was asked to join the local semi-professional team to get back into shape after gaining “a lot of weight”.
Mike completed two full seasons with them before retiring.
He said that despite the immense suffering and unbearable pain, he would not change anything about the accident.
“It gave me the path I was supposed to follow,” he said.
“I’m a better person. I embrace life more. I see things differently. I have absolutely no regrets.”
Mike attributes much of his strength thereafter to a sense of humor and self-acceptance, as well as a “tremendous support system” and “wonderful neighbors“.
It’s been more than 20 years since the freak accident in 2003 and Mike is now happily married with two children.
He works in telecommunications, but hopes to inspire others through motivational talks and created your own website.
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This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
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