Survivor recalls ‘miracle from God’

David Wilson and his six college friends knew the tornado was coming after soccer practice was canceled that night in February, and they quickly sought cover in the girls’ bathroom of the university’s commons area.

But when the tornado hit Union University in Jackson, Tenn., Mr. Wilson, 19, heard no sound of a freight train and had no warning except for the sight of the bathroom wall cracking behind a friend’s head.

He felt no panic as he made an instinctual dive to the floor and instantly was buried under the building collapsing around him. It was almost five hours before firefighters pulled him and his classmates out alive from beneath more than 20 feet of rubble.

“The fact that we got out of there was completely a miracle from God,” the Chattanooga Christian School graduate said Monday.

Mr. Wilson spoke to the media Monday for the first time since the Feb. 5 tornado. He was joined by his parents, Mark and Annie, at Siskin Hospital for Physical Rehabilitation, where he is receiving occupational and physical therapy.

During the tornado he suffered crush injuries to his legs that resulted in muscle tissue and nerve damage. Toxins released by the dying cells in his legs also caused damage to his kidneys.

He was transferred to Erlanger hospital from Jackson-Madison County General Hospital in mid-February and has been at Siskin since the first week of March.

He is expected to remain there for a few more weeks, his parents said.

The chemistry major has regained kidney function and his legs are recovering, said Dr. David Bowers, interim medical director at Siskin, who is treating Mr. Wilson.

Nerves grow back at a rate of about an inch a month, so it could take a year or two for Mr. Wilson’s damaged nerves to repair themselves, Dr. Bowers said.

Last weekend Mr. Wilson stood, with the help of parallel bars, for 17 minutes. That was a vast improvement over his first attempt the week before, which lasted four seconds and brought him to tears, he said. He also took some steps with a walker for the first time during physical therapy on Monday.

“I don’t know if I’ll walk out of this hospital when they release me ... but I’ll walk again,” he said.

The worst part of his ordeal has been the discomfort mainly in his right foot, which has been “excruciatingly painful,” he said. He is using a wheelchair now, he said, and the pain is “tolerable.”

Mr. Wilson, who plans to return to college in the fall, said his survival story has given him a way to share his faith that he did not have before.

“God’s just been really good to me throughout the whole thing,” he said.

His attitude has been endlessly positive, his doctors and parents said.

Throughout the news conference, Mr. Wilson was light-hearted and joking, only revealing his discomfort after TV cameras left.

As his father wheeled him from the Siskin conference room, the young man winced and said, “Oh my God, it’s killing me.”

UPDATE ON TORNADO SITUATION

The Jackson, Tenn., tornado’s storm system caused damage in 24 Tennessee counties, with the latest casualty toll at 33 dead and 191 injured in the state.

Union University has received about $4 million in donations since the Feb. 5 tornado hit.

The tornado, with 180 mph winds, destroyed more than 70 percent of residential student housing at Union and affected other campus buildings, causing an estimated $40 million in damages.

Classes resumed about two weeks after the storm, and graduation is on schedule to take place May 17.