By Malcolm Butler
It’s been quite a year for Ben and Kirstyn Rosson.
One they won’t soon forget for a multitude of reasons, and one they both say has left them with a renewed sense of thankfulness.
Both Ben and Kirstyn faced potential life-threatening challenges during 2023. Yet as the Rosson’s celebrate Thanksgiving today, they do so with full hearts, a new outlook on life and baby No. 2 on the way.
“I’m definitely thankful to be able to be with family and spend time with my kid,” said Ben, who has a two-year-old little boy named Will. “I am thankful to be here for them.”
Their story is almost too unbelievable to be believable.
“It’s been a crazy year,” chuckled Ben. “My whole family is like, ‘Ya’ll stop doing whatever ya’ll are doing.'”
The year began one morning in February when Kirstyn experienced a seizure that left her and Ben looking for answers.
“I just woke up one morning and was getting ready to go to work and I just had a seizure in the restroom,” said Kirstyn. “There was nothing leading up to that (moment) that gave me any idea anything was wrong.”
Doctors in Shreveport thought Kirstyn may have Progressive Multifocal Leukoencephalopathy (PML), a rare infection that damages the material (myelin) that covers and protects nerves in the white matter of the brain.
In general, PML has a mortality rate of 30 to 50 percent in the first few months following diagnosis. Those who survive the disease may be left with severe neurological disabilities. Either way, the possibility wasn’t a good one.
“We didn’t know,” said Ben. “They just weren’t sure. We were scared.”
So, Ben and Kirstyn headed to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota in early May to see world-renowned neurologist Dr. Mark Keegan.
“We got in touch with a neurologist up there, and he wanted her case,” said Ben.
After flying north and undergoing a multitude of tests, Dr. Keegan gave the Rosson’s the good news.
“He said it wasn’t PML,” said Ben. “He said it was a really bad lesion due to multiple sclerosis. She was in the hospital for three months. She had to learn how to walk, how to talk, everything all over again. One day it finally started clicking. And it all came back.”
“I spent a good bit of time in a Ruston rehabilitation hospital,” said Kirstyn, who underwent the rehabilitation from March through May. “There was a few months where I several issues. I had to relearn a lot of things, like walking and even using my hands. I probably got back right about the middle of June.”
Potential life-altering experience resolved, a blessing for sure.
But just when life for Ben and Kirstyn began to show some signs of normalcy, Ben got a work call on August 7 that almost cost him his life.
“They called in this job,” Ben said. “The power was out.”
The power was out around Princeton Place on White Street, coincidentally enough (and luckily) just a stone’s throw from Northern Louisiana Medical Center.
Ben, 25-years-old Farmerville native completing his sixth year working for the City of Ruston’s Power and Light Department, headed towards White Street along with his work partner Andy Sherrill.
Enter Angela Lewis, a complete stranger who was about to turn into Ben’s Guardian Angel.
Angela lives on White Street. But on that Monday morning, she was miles away at the Lambright Intramural Center.
A retired 70-year-old who spent more than two decades working at Northern Louisiana Medical Center, Angela said on most weekday mornings she attended the senior citizen exercise classes, including the water aerobics class at Lambright in order to “just strengthen” her muscles.
That strength would come in handy that day.
“That morning I went to water aerobics and when I got in the water, I kept hearing a voice saying ‘Go home. Go home. Go home,'” said Angela. “I was like, what? I didn’t understand it.”
But Angela headed to the premonition, got out of the water and headed home. Unbeknownst to her at the time, she drove right past Ben and Andy who had arrived at the site of the power outage.
“I went in the house and sat on the couch in the dark,” said Angela. “I was waiting because I didn’t know what was going on. I sat on the couch for a while. I just started crying, like something was wrong. I was just weeping. All the lights were off. No TV. No nothing.”
As Angela sat on her couch crying, Ben was outside attempting to remove a limb from the power line to try to restore power. His accounts of those moments and the days that followed come solely from others.
“I don’t remember that day,” said Ben. “I know what I was told about it, but I don’t remember any of it. I don’t even remember my first four days in the hospital.”
According to Ben, the power line was supposed to be dead.
“There was a three-pot bank. It’s a delta bank so all the phases are connected,” said Ben. “We didn’t realize it at the time. We didn’t think about that bank. So, the switch was open on the line I was on. It was supposed to be dead.
“A limb was hanging on it the line. I, apparently, tried to knock the limb off and untangle the wire, and the wire was wrapping back around. I reached back around and grabbed it to stop it, and that’s when it got me.”
What got Ben was 13,200 volts of electricity, more than enough to stop his heart.
“All of sudden the lights started blinking,” said Angela, who survived her own near-death experience when she spent a month in a coma in the ICU at NLMC due to a thyroid storm. “The TV came on. I heard this buzzing sound. I looked at my phone. I was like ‘What is that sound?’ I went to the door, and I heard a man’s voice say, ‘Help! Help! I need help!'”
Angela ran outside and that’s when Andy yelled to her that Ben had been electrocuted. As Andy lowered the bucket containing Ben’s limp body down, Angela waited ground level. Once the bucket was ground level, Angela said she used strength she didn’t even know she had to help lift Ben’s lifeless body out.
“At first all I could see was his red hair,” said Angela. “He was white as a ghost. I have never seen a ghost before, but I got him by his shoulders, and I just pulled him out. I began to pray and ask the Lord to help. I was like, ‘You are not going to die in my neighborhood on my time. No sir.'”
Ben’s heart had stopped. Death was a real possibility.
“From what I understand if a couple more minutes (had gone) by then I wouldn’t be here today,” said Ben. “My heart was not beating for five minutes. That’s crazy.”
Fortunately for Ben, in addition to Andy and Angela’s help, an ambulance was in the vicinity at Northern Louisiana Medical Center. It took EMTs just a minute to arrive on the scene once the 911 call was received.
Call it luck. Call it Divine Intervention.
“If there hadn’t been an ambulance at the hospital that close, I wouldn’t be here today,” said Ben. “I talked to (Andy) on the phone afterwards, and he said Angela was my saving grace because he couldn’t get me out of the bucket without her.”
Ben was transported to NLMC and stabilized, then airlifted to Oschner LSU Health in Shreveport where he remained for seven days. His injuries included burns on both hands and a blood clot in his lungs.
Almost four months later, the signs of the burns are almost gone, and Ben’s lungs and heart are well on their way to recovering. He has a doctor’s appointment next week and hopes to be cleared to return to work.
One of the first things he did after being released from the hospital was go back to the scene of the accident to meet Angela.
“I wanted to go meet Angela and talk to her,” said Ben.
“There was a couple of weeks where he was confused,” said Kirstyn. “His memory wasn’t good. Once he got his mind back right, I actually told him about Miss Angela and took him to her house. He got a chance to meet her.”
According to both Ben and Angela, the meeting had an impact for both of them.
“I told Ben that I didn’t know why God brought him back, but it’s for a reason,” said Angela, who received The Excellence Made Here Award from Ruston Mayor Ronny Walker and Fire Chief Chris Womack weeks after helping Ben.
Angela still humbly says she doesn’t understand why people made such a fuss over her actions that fateful day.
“I didn’t want to be treated like a hero,” said Angela. “I was like, ‘What did I do?’ You reap what you sow. I have a son. Anytime I see someone else’s son in trouble, I am going to jump in there and help. But give the credit to God. He was the one who worked through me.”
The word angel is part of Angela’s name. And as far as Kirstyn and Ben are concerned, it’s very fitting.
“She was his angel as far as I’m concerned,” said Kirstyn, who first met Angela in the emergency room the day Ben was electrocuted. “We are very thankful for Miss Angela. I am extremely thankful for her because she played a big role in keeping my husband here so that I could have a dad for both of our children and so I could still have a husband.”
As Thanksgiving arrives, Ben said life has a new, deeper meaning for he and his family.
“My wife and kids, my whole family … we are in church every Sunday,” said Ben. “I cherish the little things more. You never know what day will be your last. It’s been quite a year.”
One that Ben and Kirstyn are thankful to have lived to talk about.
