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CBN.com – Morris Goodman is an amazing man. In fact they call him “The Miracle Man." He has a beautiful wife named Cathy. An incredible dog named Bandit who, by the way, likes to sing.
Morris is a sought-after motivational speaker. His clients include AFLAC, General Motors, and Xerox to name a few. He’s written a powerful book and there’s even a short film made about his life with a special appearance by Zig Ziglar.
So what is this man’s incredible story? It all started back in March of 1981.
“It’s a modern day story of Job. You know Job lost everything. He lost his health, his wealth, his family. I did the same thing,” says Morris.
Like Job, Morris had it all. He was one of the most successful insurance agents in the country.
“I started with MET Life and became their No. 1 agent.”
But one day his world collapsed. Morris took his new airplane out for a test flight. That flight ended in tragedy; his landing gear got caught in power lines.
“The last thing I remember is the ground coming up. I thought to myself, Well, I’ve had it now... I can’t begin to describe the pain I was in. How bad I hurt. You can’t put it into words.”
After Morris survived the trip to the hospital, all he could do was lie in his bed and blink his eyes.
“Unless you’ve been in the position I was in where you just look at the ceiling and all you can do is blink your eyes, it’s pretty hard to put into words,” he tells The 700 Club.
His injuries were horrific. Morris’ neck was broken in two places.
“My diaphragm was destroyed, and I couldn’t breathe. My swallowing reflex was destroyed, and I couldn’t eat or drink.”
He also couldn’t talk; his voice box was crushed. Doctors said every muscle in his body was affected by the crash.
“My kidney, bladder, bowel and liver didn’t function. I destroyed pretty much everything in my body,” he says. “All I could do was blink my eyes, once for yes and twice for no. That’s the way I functioned for a long, long time.”
But Morris Goodman is a fighter. He fought long and hard. He had to regain control of his body one small step at a time. His first goal was to get off the ventilator.
He recalls, “I tried to suck a little air with the respirator. Every time I did my lungs hurt something terrible. I took 100 breaths. I’d rest five minutes. I’d take a 100 more every time. Then I started taking 200 breaths. Then I started taking 300. One night I did that and my lungs expanded three times on their own.”
Finally the medical personnel cut down his dependency on the ventilator.
“Therapy department came in and cut the machine down where it was doing 90 percent of my breathing. I was only doing 10 on my own. Then it was doing 80 and I was doing 20. Then 70, 30. Finally they weaned me from the machine. They were at a loss for an explanation.”
Eventually Morris started using his stomach muscles to replace his diaphragm.
“I’ve been told I’m the only known case in the world that’s ever consciously done that. So I breathe with my stomach, my diaphragm doesn’t work ‘till this day.”
Morris’ road to recovery was daunting. He walked out of the hospital in eight months, but it took years to get a lot of his bodily functions back.
“It took me two years to learn to say a sentence,” he says. “Still after I returned home it still took almost five years to get back on my feet again.”
While Morris freely admits that God was a major factor in his recovery, at that point in his life, he wasn’t a Christian.
“It wasn’t that I didn’t believe in God, but it was kind of like I let God do His little thing, and I did my own little thing. But I think the accident in retrospect was probably the best thing that ever happened to me.”
God brought an amazing friend across Morris’ path.
“After my accident, I met a man named Dick Woodward. He’s a Bible teacher. At the time he had [multiple sclerosis]. He was in a wheelchair, and we kind of related.
After a couple years, Morris made a key decision while listening to his friend preach.
“He said, ‘You ought to think about accepting Christ as your Savior.’ I said, ‘I already did.’ He said, ‘You did? When did you do that?’ I said, ‘While you were up there preaching.’”
Morris’ recovery is so remarkable. It’s understandable why they call him “The Miracle Man.”
“I have a story: a one in a billion story. It’s a story that can help so many people. Not everybody will be in an airplane crash and destroy their whole body like I did. But everybody has adversity and challenges to deal with in their life.”
Morris and Cathy are excited about God’s next step for their lives.
“I’m very thankful for my family, my wife. I’m thankful that I can go around the world now and share my story with people and help inspire, motivate other people to realize what potential they have and that they can go out and do things also.”
He’s also thankful that the accident that could have killed him only made him stronger.
“I’m very thankful that I didn’t die at the time of my accident ‘cause I don’t know where I would be today. I’m thankful that He gave me another chance to find salvation and to save my soul.”
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