Organ Transplant Sends Man to Heaven for 3 Minutes

“Weird things started happening,” Phillip Hanks recalled about his failing health. “My eyes began turning yellow. I was constantly tired all the time and I started dropping weight. It sent me into fear. This is the end of your life.”

Phillip valued strength more than anything. A bodybuilder since he was thirteen, his focus was always to get that much bigger, more cut. But at thirty-four, years of excessive supplement use had damaged his liver, and a supposedly sterilized tattoo needle was the final straw.

“When I went to see the doctor, they ran blood work,” Phillip said. “That sterilized needle had Hepatitis C in it. ‘You have liver cancer, and you're going to need a liver transplant.’ It shocked me. I have never even had a broken bone, let alone any kind of surgery or anything else. The next thought I had was, ‘You don't want to drag someone through all of that medical stuff.’ So, I began trying to break off the relationship with my then girlfriend.”

“I loved him,” Tiva said. “It was never a question, as far as I was concerned, that I wasn't going to be there for the storm. Whenever there is something that has happened to me, I always call on Jesus. So, I just kind of held on to that and asked for God to, you know, heal him and cover him.”

“And that's when I decided this is the woman I have to marry,” Phillip said. Phillip and Tiva exchanged vows shortly after, and from then on were joined in prayer. A few months later they got the call; a liver was ready. As he was put under for the surgery, Phillip had one more word with God.

“'Okay, God, you know, if this goes wrong, I want to come to you,’” Phillip said. Due to complications, Phillip flatlined on the operating table. “I was part of light,” Phillip said. “The brightest light you could possibly imagine. I remember being filled with overwhelming love, peace, joy, excitement. I think I was in the outer realms of Heaven. And I heard audibly, ‘It's not your time, you have to go back. You’re going to be okay.”

It took three and a half minutes to resuscitate Phillip. After two follow up surgeries and a painful recovery, the transplant was deemed a success. He went on to live normally for nearly thirteen years – until one day he felt a shooting pain while playing basketball. Doctors discovered that Phillip’s transplanted liver was failing, requiring another transplant and also a new kidney. He was then sent to a specialist in multi-organ transplants at Indiana University Health, Dr. Richard Mangus. The news he had for Phillip was disheartening.

“We're going to have to remove your liver, kidney, pancreas, upper and lower intestines and your stomach, and we're going to have to replace them. He didn’t know if it was going to work and I said, ‘Well, do you have a restroom?’ I'm crying and I'm blubbering and I'm down on my hands and knees. I remember looking up and I was kind of yelling at God, ‘So this is it? This is how I go out?’ Then I was reminded, ‘You died for three and a half minutes. I was with you then, why would I leave you now?’ That calm that I felt when I was in the light, it came back over me, and I was like, ‘Okay, alright.’”

“I was very upfront with him and told him I didn't want to do the transplant,” Dr. Mangus said. “In the end, Philip changed my mind. You know, some people get so sick and in their mind and in their attitude, they're defeated – Philip wasn't like that. He felt like that we could do this. I think that gives some small bit of confidence to the surgeon, like, ‘I can work with this person.’”

Once a donor was eventually found, Tiva rallied family and friends to lift Phillip up in prayer. Dr. Mangus performed two extensive surgeries, transplanting the five organs over the course of two days. The results were astounding.  

“I tell patients, 'You're going to be in the hospital at least a month, most of that time in the ICU.' Phillip, within days, was up and around and starting to walk. I think it's remarkable.”

“It was amazing,” Tiva said. “Phillip is here because prayer moves mountains.”

Phillip rejoined his family and has since felt healthier and happier than ever before. He began working with the Illinois Secretary of State to promote organ donation. He speaks at events and high schools telling everyone he can how God, and the power of prayer, saved his life – Dr Mangus agrees. 

“It's inspiring to see someone like him, Dr. Mangus said. “I think faith can have a very large part in making it through any kind of a health issue. Everything that we do, it came from God. You know, my patients tell me often that everyone's praying for them, they're praying for me, and I say, ‘Thank you very much. I will take all the help that I can get because I need it.’”

“I can't put into words how grateful I am for the donation,” Phillip said. “God is real, Heaven is real, and prayer works. I cannot count on one hand how many times God has blessed me over and over and over again, and I'm nobody special. If you call on him, He will come.”