He Flatlined for 22 Minutes… and Met God

An early morning in December 2024 started out like any other for William and Phyllis Collins. They were lying in bed together, talking, when suddenly, in the middle of a sentence, William went silent. Phyllis instantly knew something was wrong.

“What alarmed me that particular morning was the sound that I heard,” Phyllis recalled. “It was a different sound. It was like a gurgling sound. He didn’t respond, but I just kept hearing this noise. So I got up and turned the light on. When I looked at him, he seemed to be in some type of medical distress. His eyes were open, but there was really no life to them.”

William had no pulse. Phyllis immediately called 911 and began CPR. EMTs arrived shortly after and began working on William. They shocked him five times and performed CPR for 22 minutes — still, there was no heartbeat.

“I’m watching them do CPR, and I’m frantic,” Phyllis said. “I knew that this was definitely a situation where we needed the Lord to step in and intervene — because if He didn’t, it wasn’t going to turn out well.”

Finally, after the fifth shock, they got a pulse. The ambulance rushed William to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital just three miles away. Phyllis and their daughter followed closely behind.

“As we were following them, I was observing everything. The siren wasn’t on, and that meant they were still transporting him, but possibly had lost the patient. Is he okay? Is he awake? Is he alert? Is he looking for me? I was uncertain of all those things.”
A
t the hospital, William was found to be stable and awake. Doctors immediately began performing tests to determine the cause of his cardiac arrest. But just 40 minutes later, he coded again.

Phyllis immediately called friends and family to pray for her husband.

“Our church was praying. I sent messages to prayer groups. Everyone was praying,” she said. “We were praying for miracles, for signs, and for wonders. We knew that if anything was going to turn around, God could do it.”

For another 20 minutes, William was clinically dead. After being shocked a seventh time, he was revived.

When doctors received William’s test results, they were baffled. All the markers for his heart were normal.

“God was at work behind the scenes,” Phyllis said. “He was letting us know that He had it under control.”

Since William had been without oxygen for a total of 42 minutes, doctors were unsure what his cognitive state would be. But just one day after his cardiac arrest, they were amazed at the progress they saw.

“He was opening his eyes, squeezing my hand, and able to move his arm a little to help the nurses,” Phyllis said. “My hope meter, which was way down, started rising again — slowly but surely.”

William recalled, “My first memory was that of my grandchildren. They all finally had an opportunity to come into the room and see me. I remember calling them one by one, just sharing with them and holding their hands.”

Doctors told William he would need a permanent port and dialysis due to signs of kidney failure resulting from the cardiac arrest. Even though his heart showed no issues, they were not hopeful he would make a full recovery with his kidneys.
“Although he was alive, we didn’t know what his life would actually look like,” Phyllis admitted.

Twenty days after his cardiac arrest, William was discharged from the hospital and began ten days of physical rehab. Just days later, he received his last dialysis treatment, and the permanent port was removed.

Despite what doctors initially believed, William was completely healed. He knows that with God, all things are possible.

“I don’t even know how to adequately or sufficiently explain it,” William said. “But I have a fresh outlook. He is sovereign. He is all-powerful. Ultimately, my trust is in Him. And what I don’t know, what I don’t see, has nothing to do with what God is capable of doing.”

Today, William is healthy with no heart or kidney issues. He and Phyllis are grateful to God and continue to encourage others to trust Him for miracles.

“My faith in God didn’t waver,” Phyllis said. “My faith in God was what sustained me through it all. I didn’t question God. I really just turned to Him and relied on Him for strength, for comfort, for peace — and He supplied everything I needed.”