7-Year-Old Miraculously Survives Deadly Plane Crash

May 31st, 2020. Schoolteacher and divorced mother of two, Lindsay Jeter, came home from work to find sheriffs deputies in the front yard. Lindsay remembers that day. “I immediately knew something was wrong.” They had news about her 7-year-old son, Mason. "He said, ‘Your son has been in a plane crash and I'm here to take you to him.’ My initial reaction was to be very upset. I said, ‘Is he gonna be okay?’ and he said, ‘Ma'am, I don't know.’”

Mason, his dad, and uncle, the pilot, were taking a scenic flight in Pineville, Louisiana when the small plane crashed shortly after takeoff. Both men were killed instantly. Mason was thrown clear when his seatbelt tore and the top of the plane was ripped off.

“I remember just pleading and begging, begging, ‘God, please, please just, just help him be okay,’” Lindsay recalls.

The officers drove Lindsay to Rapides Regional Medical Center, thirty minutes away. Lindsay’s mother, Marilyn Smith, followed. “It was horrible. I called a friend of mine and I told her, ‘I just need you to get people together and start praying because I don't know what injuries he has and I don't know how bad he is.”’

Finally, they got to Mason’s side. “It was terrifying because his head was swollen, his eyes were purple and swollen,” Marilyn says. “It was just surreal.”

“That's an image that you don't ever get out of your head,” Lindsay agrees. “It was very shocking to see him like that. He was almost unrecognizable, just a horrific scene.”

Mason’s injuries were extensive. He had several broken bones, a skull fracture that left him with brain swelling, and multiple organ damage that included bruised lungs and a lacerated liver. Though the boy was stable, doctors warned he might have permanent brain damage. Mason was in a medically induced coma and on a ventilator to help reduce the brain swelling. 
Marilyn, a former ICU nurse, understood his injuries better than most and knew what was at stake.

“With each one I just felt more crushed and more crushed because there were so many of them. They were all so severe and any one of them could have had severe complications that would've taken him away from us.”

Word of the accident spread and friends and family gathered from all over the surrounding area to pray and comfort the grieving family. Some, including Lindsay’s fellow teachers, met in the parking lot below Mason’s room as he was taken into surgery to repair his broken femur.

“They did a candlelight vigil for him it was amazing-- very humbling,” Lindsay remembers. “That was very heartwarming,” Marilyn agrees. “We knew that Mason had lots and lots of prayers going up and that's what would get him through this.”

The surgery was successful. Then, as they waited for his lungs and other organs to heal and the swelling in his brain to go down, Lindsay says God led her to read Psalm 91:11. “He showed me that He’s given us angels to guard us. That exponentially increased my faith. I prayed that over him that God would dispatch His guardian angels to watch over him.”

Over the next few days, Mason’s lungs began to improve and his liver healed. Then on Friday, five days after the accident, Mason’s kidneys started to fail, a sign that his organs may be shutting down. “Definitely scary but I had a peace about that and just totally utterly leaning on God in a way that I had never had to before,” Lindsay says.

By Monday morning, Mason’s kidney’s had drastically improved and doctors felt certain they would fully recover. What they were not sure about was how much, if any, brain damage Mason suffered. Then, four days later on June 5th, Mason was taken off the ventilator and brought out of the coma. It was an anxious moment for Lindsay. “He didn't immediately recognize me and that scared me. He recognized my mom, but he did not recognize me.”

Then, half an hour later Mason called Lindsay, “Mom.” Lindsay was relieved. “As his memory returned, we knew that his brain function was fully there. That was very comforting.”

After two weeks in the hospital, Mason was released. “Just that he's here is a miracle,” Lindsay declares, “but that he had no permanent organ damage, no permanent brain damage. It’s a total miracle.”

Today, Mason is a healthy, active boy who still loves flying. Soon after the accident, he was accepted into his school’s academically gifted program. After all he’s been through, Mason has learned a lot about prayer. “The power of prayer is very strong. It's really cool to know that all those people cared about me and prayed about me,” Mason says.

“Prayer altered this story. It could have been so different,” says Lindsay. “He may not have healed as quickly--wouldn't even be here possibly. I think that the Lord definitely honors our prayer and I think it's so important.”

Marilyn agrees. “I just believe that there was a league of angels that were assigned to him at that moment that jerked him out of that plane. When it crashed, Mason kept flying and he flew with them. But I think that without the prayers, I don't know that we would've had the same outcome. There is mighty power in every prayer. The Lord still is in the miracle business. He's still performing miracles every day.”