A little over a month ago my longtime friend David (Raptor) was involved in a very serious motorcycle accident. It would have killed most people, but he's a very strong man with tremendous vitality.

To make a long story short, he lay in a coma in St Michael's Hospital in Toronto for 3 weeks. They kept him under with massive amounts of sedatives (it took about 5 times the normal dose to keep him from waking up, because he has so much vitality)...they did this because they felt it was safer to keep him comatose while he did the initial healing, due to many very serious injuries. He's been out of the coma now for about 2 weeks, and is getting better.

I visited David today at the hospital, and he requested that I start a thread on Mudcat asking for people's prayers and thoughts. He did this because he feels strongly that the prayers and thoughts of his many good friends here in the local area were crucial in saving his life. (this is not the kind of thing David would normally think about, but his experience of nearly dying seems to have shifted his outlook on spiritual things a great deal). The doctors say he was clinically dead for brief periods at least 11 times, but he's still here. David calls that a miracle.

In any case, he has felt so much helped by the prayers and good thoughts of his many friends here in Ontario that he would appreciate any others that can be send from farther afield too.

So that's why I'm posting it here.

To describe David, he's a musician, a lover of music by people like Bob Dylan, Steve Earle, Tom Waites, etc; he's a big, tall, strong, enthusiastic extrovert who loves the outdoors, animals, specially birds...David is a world-class "birder", and can tell you anything you want to know about North American birds of all types. He likes kayaking, snowshoeing, all outdoor activities like that. He has a big heart and a wacky sense of humour. He is a good man. And one of the best friends I've ever had.