Thought I would share a photo/story of my nephew Koty Eggleston. He is 17 years old and lives in Mansfield, Mo.
A couple years ago I had Greg Coffey build me a Shrew. I shopped for months on-line before finding a board worthy of veneers for my shrew. I had the bocote board sent to him to grind the veneers from and it turned out to be an absolutely gorgeous bow. I shot more robin hoods with it than I have ever shot with any other bow, but couldn’t get used to the sound from the carbon, so I sold it to my brother (really regretting that decision every time I see it, but it has a great home!). Well, Koty started “playing” with his dad’s new bow and absolutely fell in love with it!! My brother saw how much his son loved the bow and relented, giving his only son the bow for his own. Koty has been shooting it religiously for the last couple seasons, but only connecting on frogs and other little critters. He scored some good misses under his belt with whitetails, but stayed true nonetheless! He was a determined young man and loved the bow so much he would not give up on it.
On August 25th this year, shortly after the start of his senior year, Koty collapsed on the gym floor and coded. His heart stopped and fortunately, due to another medical issue, paramedics were already at the rural high school and rushed to his side and began cpr. Had they not been there at that moment this story could have a tragic end. They were able to get his heart going, but he began seizing for 37 minutes while being life-flighted to Mercy Medical Center in Springfield, Mo. They basically shut Koty’s system down to stop the seizing and kept him heavily sedated for the next 24 hrs., waiting to see the extent of cardiac and neurological damage. Our family contacted everyone we knew to start praying for healing and that he would not have suffered any major brain or heart damage during the event. Our prayers were answered after Koty spent over a week in intensive care and underwent extensive testing. It was determined there was no lasting effects, other than the original condition that created the episode. God is so good!
To shorten this story somewhat, Koty went through stress testing and discovered he had a heart defect that overloaded his heart, but it was repairable. On September 25th, he underwent heart ablation surgery to correct this problem. Again, after a lot of prayer and excellent medical staff, the surgery was successful and the surgeon told Koty he believed his heart problems were behind him and he should be back to normal in no time. So, although sore and recovering from the surgery, he began to prepare for the upcoming archery season. On Sunday morning (Oct. 11th) Koty was comfortably perched 9 ft. in the air in a super dense cedar thicket in a stand he and his father had hung days earlier. At approximately 10 a.m., Koty sees a buck approaching and prepares for a shot if it should be offered. The buck makes a bee-line to his tree and at 3 yds looks straight up at him. Koty tells his father later that he was at ½ draw waiting for the shot and squinted his eyes tightly fearing the buck would see the whites in his eyes. As the buck paused and turned to leave, Koty let his arrow fly and it struck its mark double-lunging the beast! Koty began trembling profusely as he watched the pig buck leave the scene in a panic. He then called his dad to tell him what happened and promptly told him he had arrowed a pig!!
His father (my big brother Jeff), walked toward his son’s stand to join him and take up the trail. On his way, he receives a text from Koty that says “Thinkin back on it, I don’t think the buck was all that big but God did he look it when I was pullin’ back on him. Man, I’m still shaking!!!” Clearly Koty was amped up during the encounter to say the least! Jeff arrived at Koty’s stand and began talking about the shot and where the buck had traveled afterward. Koty tells his father exactly what happened. They decide to take up the trail and find nothing for 60 yards, but Koty stands firm knowing he heard his buck crash. After sitting to discuss the trailing and whether to pull out, Jeff begins glassing the trail and eventually makes out a horn in the brush. After closer inspection by father and son, they determine there is a deer approx. 100 yards from them and is quite possibly down. They stalk up for a closer look, which reveals Koty’s trophy has indeed fallen to his well-placed Zwickey No Mercy tipped carbon propelled by his favorite longbow, the Shrew Hunter. I was not there but can only imagine the emotions and joy father and son shared, in a small piece of family property, after only months earlier wondering if Koty would survive his heart attack. Praise God, the power of prayer, and the hunting bond shared by father and son that keeps pulling us all back season after season.
PS, this is Koty’s 1st trad bow harvest of a big game animal. It will truly be hard to beat this considering the year he has had. The buck weighed well over 200 lbs and scored just over 143 gross inches. For southern Missouri, a real monster!! What a pig, congrats Nephew, may there be many more in your future!! Proud of you for hanging in there
God Bless!
Topic: Remarkable Blessing (Read 1607 times)
