BOUNTIFUL — After hanging upside down in his ATV, unable to move for seven hours, Brandon Sulser began to consider that his life had come to an end. Red ants crawled around his body and he became frustrated for choosing to go down the road that had caused his accident.
Having endured other traumatic experiences in his life, however, Sulser knew he could remain calm and turn to God. As each hour went by, Sulser, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, focused on his belief in God and the opportunity for eternal life.
"It’s a horrible feeling knowing that you’re going to be dying alone," Sulser said. "I just knew that if these were my last moments, I wanted to be remembered by my strength and my faith."
Since he was 12 years old, Sulser has survived four near-death experiences: a brain injury, a broken neck, freezing to death and a head-on collision.
A priesthood blessing
It was the summer of his sixth-grade year, and Sulser had recently moved from Colorado to Bountiful with his family. Sulser was preparing to attend a Scout camp where they would mountain bike up Mueller Park canyon. Although his mother had repeatedly told him to bring a helmet, Sulser chose to go without. The trip came and went and as the boys prepared to return, Sulser along with some friends chose to ride their bikes home.
Traveling around 10 miles an hour down the road, Sulser suddenly blacked out, fell off of his bike and hit his head on the corner of the concrete curb. An hour later Sulser awoke from his coma surrounded by the paramedics, and was immediately rushed to a local hospital. Sulser and his family were told he had experienced a terrible concussion, and it would get better with time. However, as Sulser returned home he became concerned about his life.
"I felt like I was on my deathbed," Sulser said. "I was fighting like mad to keep me here because I knew that death was so close. ... I said, ‘Dad, I need a priesthood blessing because I don’t want to die tonight, I want to stay here and I feel like something terrible is going on.’”
Sulser received the blessing, but struggled to sleep through the night. At 4 a.m. upon checking on their son, Sulser's parents chose to take him back to the hospital.
"My scalp had expanded to the point to when I would press my fingers against my scalp my fingers would sink in about half an inch, and it was just mushy," Sulser said. "This time they did a CT scan, and the next thing I know the radiologists and the doctors are screaming at each other and they quickly come in my room and put me on a gurney and say, 'You’re being rushed to Primary Children’s Hospital and the helicopter is waiting outside.'"
The doctor explained to Sulser's parents, "Brandon should have died last night. We made a terrible mistake." When Sulser had hit the curb, the main artery inside his brain had been severed. Sulser's parents were told in cases as this, death is imminent within hours. They knew Brandon possibly had minutes to live.
"Me and my parents were concerned, but I knew for a fact that if my dad gave me a priesthood blessing and the Lord saved my life that night, he wasn't going to take me on the way to surgery," Sulser said. "I could feel that the Lord was going to preserve my life."
Sulser was transferred to Primary Children's Hospital and underwent eight hours of surgery. As he awoke and was taken back to his room, the surgeon, who was not religious, approached Sulser's family with tears in his eyes.
"When I went in there to save your life Brandon," the doctor said, "when we opened up your skull I found out that someone was already saving your life. It was literally like the hand of God had a finger up against your main artery causing it not to bleed, because it was completely severed, and there was no blood coming out of the artery. … You never see that, you don’t see that. So what I had to do was just finish what somebody else was doing."
A hymn of comfort
Sulser received several plates and screws in his head and struggled with his speech, as well as spelling and math. But he pressed forward and by the age of 18, a senior in high school, Sulser was 6-foot-2 and benching 350 pounds.
It was summer and Sulser and his friends were in Moki Canyon while on a vacation with his family to Lake Powell. They decided to run down the sandhill together and dive into the water. As Sulser started running, his legs tripped up in the hot sand and he was forced to dive prematurely. As he did, Sulser dove into a shallow sand bank and immediately broke his neck.
“I quickly learned that within seconds the things that I took for granted, being able to walk and get dressed — the basic things in life were taken from me,” Sulser said.
Because of the heat, Life Flight could not carry any family members, so Sulser was placed on the helicopter alone.
"I remember looking out the window on a stretcher with a neck brace, and basically saying goodbye to my life, or goodbye to the life that I was hoping for," Sulser said.
Sulser soon found himself hooked to medical equipment that supported his life. As he lay there alone he remembered that he was most dependent upon his Savior. Leaning on a favorite hymn, Sulser began to mouth the words to "Come Thou Fount."
"That night I literally had to raise my Ebenezer, which was my monument of faith," Sulser said. "I really took great comfort in Joseph Smith, when he was in the Carthage Jail and was wondering 'Oh, God where art thou?' when he was struggling, and I surely was feeling that too. But then I remembered what the Lord said, he said, 'All these things shall give thee experience and should be for thy good.' I just took that to heart, and that’s kind of where I drew the line in the sand saying I’m going to rely on my faith to get me through this."
Plans changed for Sulser, yet he pressed on. He received a bachelor's degree in health service administration in 2006 from Weber State University and a master's degree in social work in 2009 from the University of Utah at age 29. Wanting to help those who suffer life-changing experiences such as his own, Sulser became a social worker at the same rehabilitation center where he had received therapy.
Although each day has its pain and frustrations, he continues to lean on his faith.
“I’ve learned to embrace and love the plan of salvation because it gives me hope that I’ll be able to have a great and glorious body again,” Sulser said. “I still have my ups and downs, but it’s where I go when I have my downs and my ups that really determines my happiness.”
A glimpse at death
As a graduation gift for himself, Sulser purchased a side-by-side ATV with hand controls and one Saturday morning chose to take it behind the Bountiful B mountain. While enjoying the trails, he saw a path that he'd never taken before. Shortly after turning down the road, he saw the trail was too steep, and meant for a single track ATV. Sulser was halfway back up the road when his wheels collided with a root in the road and caused his ATV to flip 50 degrees.
Sulser, unable to move, waited two hours hoping someone would travel down the trail to find him. But his hopes for a rescue soon grew faint as a storm began to come over the mountain. Sulser hung in his ATV, dressed in shorts and a T-shirt as a downpour continued for five hours. He slowly lost his vision and breathing became difficult. Realizing that nobody would be traveling in such weather, Sulser's prayers changed from asking to be saved, to forgiveness.
Each time Sulser opened his eyes he would gasp for air. The pain became intense, and he began to wonder why he should suffer any longer. A thought came to hold his breath in order to be removed from his pain quicker.
"All of a sudden I had this feeling inside, 'Hey, Brandon, breathe,'" Sulser said. "I just had this feeling of peace. I had this feeling that the Lord basically told me, 'Brandon this is not your call, this is mine. I’ll be the one who chooses whether you live or die.'"
Sulser took another breath and cried out to God, "Father in Heaven, please take me or save me." He closed his eyes and woke up nearly a day and a half later in intensive care.
Sulser soon learned that shortly after he didn't return home, his parents called Davis County Search and Rescue. A crew of 50 men searched the mountains for hours and were close to calling off the rescue due to the weather. One man, however decided to look down one more path, where Sulser's body lay. Sulser was unconscious, no pulse and had a body temperature of 73 degrees.
The search and rescue worker then remembered his patriarchal blessing which said he would have the opportunity to raise someone from the dead. In fact, it was the reason he joined search and rescue and carried oil with him. After administering the blessing, Sulser's heart began to beat. He was immediately removed from the mountain and Life-Flighted to the hospital.
"Obviously there are still lessons I must learn and things I’m supposed to do," Sulser said. "But how I live my life, there’s two outcomes really. … You can either be bitter and angry about the shortcomings and basically just how unfair my life has been, one accident is enough, right? Or you can look at it on the flip side and you can choose to be better through it and embrace what it can teach you and then adapt to what you can’t control."
Pressing forward
Five years later, Sulser was traveling to work on the freeway when he was hit head-on by a driver traveling in the wrong direction. His car slid into the corner of a tow truck, coming within feet of his head. Sulser broke multiple bones in his face and lost the mobility on his left side. The loss of strength meant he could no longer travel back and forth to work as a social worker and had to leave his job.
"My mom always tells me, ‘Brandon it could always be worse,’" Sulser said. "And really, I’ve learned to respect those words because regardless of my situation, it could always be worse, and I’ve learned to be grateful for what I have. … I go to long-term, big-picture kind of things because if I don’t, I’ll go crazy. If I see my life in my mortal eyes, it’s a quick turn to insanity. But if I see myself in my spiritual eyes, then it becomes much more bearable and much more understandable."
Sulser works in the temple once a week and continually looks for the opportunity to serve others. Although he has suffered much, he finds his strength in Jesus Christ.
"What I’ve learned is if you’re humble and you’re sincere and you come unto Christ, the Lord will help you to overcome your adversity and if not, will give you the strength to withstand it," Sulser said. "That’s what he’s done for me, he’s given me the strength to withstand it. I’ve seen miracles in my life, he’s literally saved my life. But he hasn’t necessarily taken me out of my challenges, my adversities. But it’s that strength that I rely upon that he’s given me that enables me to press forward."
While his life story appears to be unfair, Sulser has chosen to use his experiences in life to help others.
"I'm now understanding the purpose why I was kept alive through my multiple accidents," Sulser said. "It was so that I could tell my story in hopes that it may help and inspire others struggling with life's challenges. It's a story about how life doesn't always go as planned, but through positive actions, willpower and faith, I, you and we can withstand and overcome all obstacles by becoming better through them rather than bitter."
Brandon Sulser recently partnered with the Deseret News and will contribute as a video columnist.
Email: sarahsanders.byu@gmail.com | Twitter: @Sarah_DNews