By Steve Rees —
Two Spirit-filled followers of Jesus – a businessman/prayer leader named Brad Tuttle and a paramedic who’ve prayed together with other men for 20 years – were miraculously reunited by a 911 emergency call reporting Tuttle’s death.
The death report was premature. It turned out to be a Lazarus-like moment.
Tuttle’s wife, Juneal, stood in faith praying and performing CPR until a paramedic arrived at the couple’s home, the headquarters of Tuttle’s prayer ministry for almost three decades. He founded a Spiritual Warfare Attack Team (SWAT) that makes house calls in desperate situations.
Now Tuttle faced his own dire prayer emergency, his body deprived of a pulse and oxygen for 15 minutes when paramedic Captain Shain Vick arrived and resumed CPR on a Monday, March 27.
Juneal texted believers around the world requesting prayer for her husband of 55 years.
Two other first-responders – both of them Christians – worked and prayed with Vick to get a pulse, which returned then disappeared as Tuttle’s unresponsive body lay on his home’s kitchen floor.
Captain Vick, who prays in a heavenly language, began to intercede in tongues while working on Tuttle – a friend and spiritual mentor since 2007 when they met at a church in Loveland, Colorado.
“I’m doing my job as a paramedic but, by the same token, I want to save the biggest intercessor in northern Colorado,” says Vick, who was once part of a men’s group with Tuttle, in addition to going on SWAT calls.
With Tuttle’s lifeless body in an ambulance, Vick started CPR again, hoping to find a pulse.
A 28-year veteran paramedic, Vick suspected his mentor had a massive, sudden heart attack.
Seventy-two-years old at the time, Tuttle had statistics stacked against him if, in fact, blood and oxygen to his heart and brain remained blocked.
Preparing to insert a breathing tube, Vick turned to another believing EMT on the scene to agree with him in faith and pray for preservation of Tuttle’s life.
“So I put my hands on Brad’s head and my partner put his hands on Brad’s chest. It was like, ‘Lord, this is Brad Tuttle, one of your servants. If this is supposed to work, then bring Brad back,’” Vick recalls.
To their amazement 30 seconds later, Tuttle’s eyes opened, and his pulse returned. “He starts asking what happened, believing the ordeal was a bad dream.
“I kept telling Brad, ‘The dream is over. Jesus is here,’” Vick says.
“He went from no brain activity for about 28 minutes to recognizing me standing in front of him. That’s absolutely 100 percent miracle,” says Vick, who believes the Bible’s words about healing the sick, raising the dead and casting out demons.
In general, brain damage can begin to occur within a few minutes of oxygen deprivation. After about 4-6 minutes without oxygen, brain cells start to become damaged and may begin to die.
“This was the closest I’ve come to a Jesus and Lazarus experience,” says Vick.
Tuttle underwent surgery to repair blockages to his heart, breathed with a ventilator for three days, then went to rehabilitation for a total of 17 days including hospitalization. All the while, spiritual warriors in India, Argentina, Japan, Thailand and across the U.S. prayed for him.
Today Tuttle’s heart is pumping at 50 percent, with 50- to 70-percent considered normal.
“It was Jesus…a miracle,” says Tuttle, whose ongoing rehab and speech therapy provide him opportunities to share the Savior’s love with patients and staff, which recorded a promotional video of him talking about his faith and amazing recovery.
“I get to share my testimony quite regularly, telling people I died two months ago,’” says Tuttle.
He sees the character of God – His kindness, goodness, mercy and love – in bringing to his rescue Spirit-filled, Bible-believing, faithful first responders who, not only prayed for Tuttle, but also provided life-saving measures.
One female prayer intercessor in Colorado Springs believes Tuttle’s death-to-life experience magnifies God’s goodness. “I’ve not personally known somebody who was dead and is now alive,” says Jean Steffenson.
She believes the testimony will enlighten people who have difficulty seeing God’s lovingkindness and mercy.
Tuttle is writing a booklet, “Death to Life,” and a book titled Why Pray? Its completion was interrupted by Tuttle’s near-fatal heart attack. It is based on a series of devotionals he emailed to intercessors this year.
Another book, How Can We Not Worship Him, will be published during the summer of 2023, coinciding with the broadcast of Tuttle’s testimony on the Rocky Mountain Christian Television Network (rockymountainctn.com).
Tuttle is a guest host of the program “Pray Until Saturation Happens” (P.U.S.H), produced by Colorado Prays (coprays.org).
Living in southern California in 1985, Tuttle was reading a metaphysical book when God broke into his life. He cried out to Jesus and started going to a 6 a.m. prayer service at his wife’s church. Then he led a chapter of the Full-Gospel Businessman’s Fellowship before moving to Colorado and starting SWAT.
