Oldfield guard awakens from coma
BY BEN CRITES, The Island Packet
Published Thursday, November 16, 2006
When rescuers pulled him from a truck submerged in a lake at Oldfield three weeks ago, Willie James Joyner didn't have a pulse. He had been underwater for about eight minutes.
Now, the Oldfield security guard is expected to be released this week from a Savannah hospital, where he was in a coma with little brain activity and a bleak outlook.
Friends and co-workers are calling it a miracle.
"The doctors are completely amazed that he's recovered like this," said Jim Macolly, director of security for Oldfield, who visited Joyner at the hospital Sunday. "Some people are saying it's divine intervention."
Joyner, 52, a retired Marine, was patrolling in a 2006 Sport Trac on Old Field Way around 5:30 p.m. Oct. 24 when he blacked out and swerved off the road. What caused him to black out is unknown, but doctors ruled out a heart attack and the use of drugs or alcohol.
When he blacked out, Joyner crashed into the railing of a bridge, and his truck plummeted into Four Post Lake along the 12th hole of the Oldfield Golf Club. It was submerged in about eight to 12 feet of water.
Three golf club employees came to Joyner's rescue, smashing the truck's window with a 3-iron, pulling Joyner out and reviving him with cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
Eddie Johnson, a former battalion chief with the Hilton Head Island Fire and Rescue Division, came to Joyner's aid.
"We never thought it would turn out like this," Johnson said. "We just thought at least we gave him a chance. We never thought that three weeks later he would be going home to family."
Macolly said some doctors expected Joyner to be brain dead. But when he awoke from the coma, Joyner remembered what was going on in the sports world and everything that happened before he blacked out.
"It's a miracle; it really is," said Jon Hundley, the head pro at Oldfield who helped save Macolly's life. "I'm just really happy for Willie."
Joyner, who has worked at Oldfield for five years, wants to come back to work, but isn't sure what his plans are. The day he was moved out of intensive care, the hospital staff greeted him with cheers.
Macolly said Joyner told him that he went to heaven, hell and his own funeral while he was in the coma.
"He said he was in this beautiful gold mansion in heaven and he went to thousands of different rooms," Macolly said. "But he wasn't allowed to stay in any of the rooms.
"He said that this means God had not prepared a room for him yet."
BY BEN CRITES, The Island Packet
Published Thursday, November 16, 2006
When rescuers pulled him from a truck submerged in a lake at Oldfield three weeks ago, Willie James Joyner didn't have a pulse. He had been underwater for about eight minutes.
Now, the Oldfield security guard is expected to be released this week from a Savannah hospital, where he was in a coma with little brain activity and a bleak outlook.
Friends and co-workers are calling it a miracle.
"The doctors are completely amazed that he's recovered like this," said Jim Macolly, director of security for Oldfield, who visited Joyner at the hospital Sunday. "Some people are saying it's divine intervention."
Joyner, 52, a retired Marine, was patrolling in a 2006 Sport Trac on Old Field Way around 5:30 p.m. Oct. 24 when he blacked out and swerved off the road. What caused him to black out is unknown, but doctors ruled out a heart attack and the use of drugs or alcohol.
When he blacked out, Joyner crashed into the railing of a bridge, and his truck plummeted into Four Post Lake along the 12th hole of the Oldfield Golf Club. It was submerged in about eight to 12 feet of water.
Three golf club employees came to Joyner's rescue, smashing the truck's window with a 3-iron, pulling Joyner out and reviving him with cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
Eddie Johnson, a former battalion chief with the Hilton Head Island Fire and Rescue Division, came to Joyner's aid.
"We never thought it would turn out like this," Johnson said. "We just thought at least we gave him a chance. We never thought that three weeks later he would be going home to family."
Macolly said some doctors expected Joyner to be brain dead. But when he awoke from the coma, Joyner remembered what was going on in the sports world and everything that happened before he blacked out.
"It's a miracle; it really is," said Jon Hundley, the head pro at Oldfield who helped save Macolly's life. "I'm just really happy for Willie."
Joyner, who has worked at Oldfield for five years, wants to come back to work, but isn't sure what his plans are. The day he was moved out of intensive care, the hospital staff greeted him with cheers.
Macolly said Joyner told him that he went to heaven, hell and his own funeral while he was in the coma.
"He said he was in this beautiful gold mansion in heaven and he went to thousands of different rooms," Macolly said. "But he wasn't allowed to stay in any of the rooms.
"He said that this means God had not prepared a room for him yet."
