A DAD who was left in a coma after a 10,000lbs block of granite crushed his face to less than three inches wide revealed how a dream saved his life.
Mike Wolo, 52, was working with huge slabs of granite when one toppled on top of him, popping his eye out of its socket and stopping his heart.
Despite dying for six minutes and being given just a three per cent chance of survival Mike’s dead friend managed to rouse him.
As his devastated family gathered around to say their goodbyes they had no idea Mike was having a “very real” drug-induced dream.
He dreamt of a late colleague who had passed away suddenly a few months before his accident.
He appeared to Mike in a dream telling him it “wasn’t his time”.
Mike explained how his pal was sitting on a log in the forest and told him: “Hey, you’re not supposed to be here.
“You’re gonna be fine. Do me a favour if you get a chance, check in on my family, and I’ll see you around.”
Shortly after, against all the odds, Mike woke up writhing in agony and desperate for medication.
He described the pain as “horrific” and added: “There’s no words to describe what you’re feeling except for your entire body is screaming, in the most ridiculous pain from toe to nose.”
He explained how the nurse had given him a button to press that would administer the pain relief and said he was just “going click, click, click” non stop.
Earlier that day Mike’s friend had persuaded him to help out with his granite importing business and although he knew it was “dangerous” he told himself it would be the last time.
He spoke to The Sun about the nightmare ordeal and his rocky road to recovery.
Mike was working inside an open trailer – with the huge stone slab sitting nearby waiting to be moved by a crane operator.
Before it had even lifted off the ground, Mike heard his friend cry out and, confused, he began to run towards the exit of the container.
But, it was too late, and the huge block fell crushing his head against the wall and “ripping (his) full face off”.
Everything went black for Mike and above the point of impact flesh protruded out “like in a a mushroom ready to erupt”.
“They (witnesses) said the most disgusting thing to see,” Mike said.
He told The Sun: “They realised they had to get me breathing again. But I had no mouth.
“They said everything was just sideways, and they could see inside my skull and whatnot.
“Three or four of them started taking turns holding my skull together.
“They said that the blood was just gushing out so quickly. So they were just trying to hold it all together and kind of put the parts where they’re supposed to be.”
He added: “It just crushed everything, the only thing that saved it from cutting the rest of my head off was a piece of wood.”
Mike’s injuries were so severe the paramedics viewed him as “an organ donor” and were dumbfounded when he later went to visit them in person and thank them for saving his life.
Talking about the extent of the damage he said: “It hit me on my left temple, and then ripped my full face off down to just under three inches wide.”
Mike’s mouth was wired shut and he was unable to speak or eat normally, relying on a tracheotomy tube to breathe.
His mother was so afraid of how he would react if he saw his reflection that she tried to stop anyone showing him.
Mike said: “You’d watch people stare at you and looked horrified.”
“I remember the first time I saw myself in the mirror that you know the absolute horror of seeing how big and gigantic my head was, but it was also not symmetrical.
“It was very misshapen and pointy at the top, and my left side was more stretched out than the right.
There’s no words to describe what you’re feeling except for your entire body is screaming, in the most ridiculous pain from toe to nose
Mike Wolo
“And one eye, my left eye, that blew out of my head was, you know, put back in, but it’s it’s moving on its own. It’s not moving to where I’m trying to look.
“In my right eye, all the blood vessels looked like a demon’s blood, a red eye.
Despite the physical agony he endured the dad said this wasn’t the most traumatic part of his ordeal and that a device that was meant to help him nearly killed him.
“The hardest part of being crushed to death, and not breathing for six minutes and breaking my neck, my shoulders and my face was not being able to eat,” he said.
“Having my jar, rewired, reconstructed. The trach tube was the worse,” he added.
Although Mike was awake, he was still not in the clear yet and diced with death two further times during his hospital stay.
These came when his breathing tube became blocked and he began to choke on his own blood.
One of these terrifying experiences came while Mike was asleep and a second “crazy” dream meant it was actor Will Ferrell who woke him up and saved him.
He described being in a car where a man in a suit was trying to choke him and he was “losing the battle”.
Mike said: “Out of nowhere Will Ferrell starts pounding on the glass of my window screaming at me to wake up.”
After three major reconstructive surgeries and four weeks bed-bound, Mike was able to leave the hospital and had only one thing on his mind.
He went to the ambulance station to surprise the crew who saved his life worked and revealed he “scared the heck out of them”.
Mike said when they heard news he was alive, they thought it was a Halloween prank.
“I looked horrible like a Walking Dead cast member with a brace on and a trach tube hole,” he explained.
Once out of hospital Mike still had the mental side of his trauma to grapple with and experienced crippling anxiety and depression.
He added that he had to stop work for a “couple of years” and felt like “a burden on society”.
I remember the first time I saw myself in the mirror that you know the absolute horror of seeing how big and gigantic my head was
Mike Wolo
“Mentally I was traumatised. It took me eight years to feel secure in my new face,” Mike said.
Despite the horrific ordeal, he didn’t let anything stand in the way of his love for the outdoors and was back on a snowmobile just three months after his accident.
He also discovered a passion for football at age 40 and was invited to join the local semi-pro team to get back in shape after he gained “a bunch of weight”.
Mike completed two full seasons with them before he retired.
He said despite immense suffering and unbearable pain, he wouldn’t change a thing about the accident.
“It gave me the pathway that I was supposed to be on, ” he said.
“I’m a better person. I embrace life more. I look at things differently. I absolutely have no regrets.”
Mike attributes much of his strength in the aftermath to a sense of humour and self acceptance as well as a “tremendous support system” and “wonderful neighbours“.
It has now been more than 20 years since the freak accident in 2003 and Mike is now happily married with two kids.
He works in telecommunications but is hoping to inspire others through motivational speaking and has set up his own website.
