Early in the morning, 30-year-old Mark finished his two-week vacation and was leaving for the factory. On the porch, his wife Juliet hugged him tightly to bid him farewell.
Mark works in a local asphalt factory. He is not tall, but he is very strong, and he is able to endure hardships. Before the two-week holiday, he had worked for 10 consecutive weeks without a day off, in order to rush a batch of asphalt for a road construction project. Mark sometimes worried that he would neglect his care for his family by working day and night, but he had no other way. Because this family needs too much money, the high housing loan has weighed on him out of breath, and two years ago, his youngest daughter Jessica suffered from cerebral palsy. The Marks do not want to give up the treatment of Jessica, they hope that God can create a miracle for their Jessica. These days, Mark is thinking about buying a wheelchair for Jessica, so that Juliet can push Jessica around outside.
Disaster strikes unexpectedly
At 7 o’clock in the morning, Mark drove his small truck to the factory, hurriedly drank a cup of coffee with everyone, and then started intense work. The first thing Mark will do today is to climb up the tall tar furnace to change a vent pipe. When he boarded the boiler, he felt that the heat from the stove was continuously coming up through the rubber shoes. He knew that the heat of the asphalt in the jar was enough to bake himself into a pie. Mark thought to himself: “I want to finish it as soon as possible, so that I can go down soon.”
Suddenly, Mark heard a sharp sound. He looked around and found a breathing valve in the middle of the furnace hissing, which indicated that it was in the furnace. The air pressure is constantly rising. Soon, Mark heard the furnace pot start to rumbling, followed by the whole furnace pot began to vibrate, and the vibration continued to increase, Mark realized that the furnace pot was about to explode!
”I must go down right away.” Mark thought to himself. At this time, cracks had begun to appear on the top of the furnace, and asphalt was constantly emerging from it. The top of the furnace was at least 15 meters above the ground, and Mark jumped off the top of the furnace. As soon as he touched the ground, Mark felt a heartache from his knees. He knew that his knee cartilage must have broken. He wanted to stand up, but he fell to the ground with pain. At this time, the hot asphalt had dripped to the ground, and Mark fell into the asphalt. Asphalt burned his tank top and work pants, Mark suddenly suffered a lot of pain, a large blisters formed on his back and burns on his face.
Mark struggled to stand up and tried to run forward, but before he took a step, he heard a muffled noise, and a heat wave rushed from behind him. Mark looked back and saw that the entire asphalt was washed out by the huge air pressure. , All rushed to him. Before Mark could react, he was washed down by the asphalt wave and fell several meters outward. Mark’s body is full of half an inch of tar, and the hot tar scorches his skin. His ears, mouth, and nose were full of tar.
”Water.” Mark then remembered that a year ago he and his workers had dug a pond under the slope 200 meters from here. This may be his only hope of survival.
Although the knee was not lightly injured, and the bones creaked with a slight movement, Mark stood up with difficulty and tried to move towards the pond. But as soon as he took a step, Mark fell with a bang. It turned out that the ground was covered with slippery asphalt, and he could not walk at all. Nearly desperate, Mark got up again and moved forward. The asphalt on the ground began to cool, becoming thicker and more difficult to walk. “Gosh!” Mark shouted desperately.
Mark still didn’t give up, he tried his best to move forward and finally moved to his truck outside the door. He leaned on the car door and looked towards the pond through a gap in his left eye, which was the only place in his body that was not covered by asphalt. “I definitely can.” He secretly encouraged himself.
Coworker Stephen Haas was talking with his boss in the office when he heard the explosion. When he ran out, he only saw a dark man staggering out of the furnace room. Stephen was frightened, and hurriedly shouted: “Call an ambulance!” At this moment the black guy walked towards the pond and plunged into the water.
One disaster after another
The moment he plunged into the water, Markton felt a lot more relaxed. As he was covered in thick asphalt, Mark quickly sank to the bottom. When he realized this, he wanted to struggle to float up too late. The asphalt on his body was too heavy, and after the asphalt cooled with water, it became like glue. Like sugar, his hands and feet were completely restrained. Mark struggled desperately under the water, but with a little effort, the asphalt tore the skin off his hands. The torn wound encountered water, which made Mark’s pain worse. Mark felt suffocated at this time, he thought he might drown here.
Mark has been lifting weights for more than ten years, but he didn’t expect it to come in handy this time. He couldn’t bend his hands and feet, so he pushed his whole body up with a pair of stiff hands, tried to make himself upright, and then pushed his head out of the water by pushing his feet hard at the bottom of the pond. But when he got to the surface, Mark could not breathe because the asphalt had blocked his nostrils and his mouth was full of asphalt, so Mark had to push the asphalt out of his mouth with his tongue first, and then he resumed breathing.
Stephen also ran to the pond at this time. Although he didn’t know who the person was in the water, he comforted him and said, “It’s okay. We have notified the ambulance and they will arrive in a while.” But Mark knew in his heart how serious his condition was. He had heard others say before that if 50% of a person’s body was burned by asphalt, he would definitely not survive.
But Mark is not willing to give up on this, before that, he has never given up anything easily. In weightlifting competitions, he was never made fun of because of his short stature. Once in a competition, he weighed 700 pounds in his first attempt. Some people laughed at him: “You can’t afford it, you are just a lightweight player.” At the end of the competition, Mark’s best result It was 800 pounds, which was about 5 times his weight, and no one dared to laugh at him anymore.
”Please help me.” Mark spit out these words with all his strength.
Stephen is familiar with this voice. This voice once warmly welcomed him when he first came to the factory, and this voice encouraged and comforted himself time and time again in his work.
Steven quickly jumped into the water to hold Mark’s head. “Man, I will support you, but we still have to stay in the water until the ambulance arrives.” Stephen knew it would be better for Mark. Five minutes later, the news of Mark’s injury had spread throughout the factory. Three more workers rushed to hear the news. Suddenly someone shouted: “Look, asphalt is flowing towards the pond.”
Stephen turned his head and saw one. The river made of asphalt is flowing into the pond, the water in the pond is sizzling with the hot asphalt, and the asphalt floating on the water is caught in the white mist and is floating towards Stephen and the others. Stephen is standing. He could feel its heat in the water, and he felt extreme fear.
”Get out of here.” Stephen shouted as he swam in the opposite direction with Mark. On the other side of the pond, there was a dike about 3 meters high. When Stephen got under the dike, he held Mark’s legs and pushed him up, but Mark’s hands firmly wrapped in asphalt couldn’t catch the slippery. Dyke. Asphalt is getting closer and closer to them, 2 meters, 1 meter…
”Come on and get him up!” Stephen yelled to the people on the shore.
When he was pulled ashore, Mark felt like he was going to be torn apart because the skin on his hand was torn off again.
Stephen also climbed onto the shore in a panic, and he looked at Mark, who was looking beyond his eyes, with great sadness.
After leaving the water, Mark’s scorching sensation immediately recovered: “Quick, quick, give me some water!” A light multifunctional truck was parked by the pond with a fire sprinkler installed on it, which was used by the factory. To deal with sudden burning of tar. Stephen hurriedly transferred to the truck, asked Mark to stand under the sprinkler, and then turned on the switch, but the bit of water from the pipe could not solve Mark’s pain.
”Go open the fire hydrant.” A worker hurriedly found a fire hose and connected it to the fire hydrant. When a powerful jet of water hit Mark’s body, Mark felt a little less painful, but then came the irresistible cold, and Mark began to tremble unceasingly. The workers found a few more clothes to cover him, and then sprayed water.
His wife and children let him create miracles of life
At 8:20 in the morning, 30 minutes have passed since the furnace exploded, Mark got into the ambulance and was rushed to the local hospital. On the way, Mark thought of his wife Juliet and the children. Since Jessica suffered from cerebral palsy two years ago, Juliet has to get up early every day to massage her and do muscle exercises. “If I die, how should their life be?” When they
arrived at the hospital, Dr. Berwick immediately peeled off the tar on the inner side of the elbow of Mark’s left arm and gave him an intravenous infusion. Although Mark’s condition was somewhat stable after the infusion, Dr Berwick suggested that he should be transferred to the Royal Infirmary in Sydney, where conditions are better.
When Juliet received the notice and rushed to the hospital, Mark had been under general anesthesia and was about to be transported by helicopter.
At 1:45 in the afternoon, Mark had arrived at the Royal Sydney Hospital. The nurses used 10 liters of paraffin oil to soften the thick tar on his body. Juliet has been waiting outside the operating room, her mind is messed up. When the doctor told her that 80% of Mark’s skin was burned, Juliet passed out immediately. She knows what this number means to a burn patient; what it means to their family!
It has been 3 days since Mark was admitted to the hospital, and his condition has always been in danger. The doctor said that as long as there is a slight accident, Mark may die. Of course, if he is lucky, he may be out of danger, but he still has to endure it for several months. Painful torture. Moreover, the condition may worsen at any time, endangering life.
Juliet was sitting alone in the small chapel of the hospital. She had been sitting like this for two hours. She was motionless and prayed that God would tell her what to do. Of course she hopes that Mark will survive, but will it be too selfish to make Mark live in extreme pain and face death at all times?
Back to Mark’s ward, Juliet stood in front of her bandaged husband, tears streaming down uncontrollably, and she gently said to Mark, “If you can’t bear the pain…I agree that you leave us…” Although Juliet His voice was almost inaudible, but in the silent ward, he could hear it clearly. Mark’s gauze-wrapped mouth moved hard, and the gauze at the corner of his eyes gradually became wet.
In the months that followed, Uke was on the line of life and death. Several times the doctor thought he was powerless, but Mark managed to survive it miraculously. After 7 skin grafts, Mark’s damaged skin was finally recovered.
Everyone thought this was an incredible miracle, but Juliet understood that this miracle was created by Mark for her and the children.
