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Religion

Brush with death yields lessons for life

At age 23, he was living his dream as a police officer. An accident would teach him endurance, patience and forgiveness and strengthen his faith.

By GAIL HOLLENBECK
Published January 14, 2006

CRYSTAL RIVER - On Halloween night 1981, Dunedin police Officer Mark Franzman was directing traffic around a fatal drunken-driving crash near Clearwater when another alcohol-impaired driver struck him. He was pronounced dead on the scene, yet lived to tell his story.

At the invitation of Crystal River police Chief Steven Burch, Franzman spoke at City Hall last month, sharing the remarkable story of his recovery from what Burch described as horrific injuries.

It was a story of how tragedy can result from impaired driving and a message of hope for those facing adversity.

In an interview after the event, Franzman explained why he shared his story.

"Everybody has what I call hurdles in life that we must overcome," he said. "It may be physical, financial, career, relational and often some sort of an addiction. We all face adversity. There is no escaping it.

"If sharing my story helps motivate, along with guiding someone through their storm so they can experience the victory that I have experienced, then all that I have gone through has meaning."

Franzman's story is about the triumph of the human spirit but also about his faith in God.

"Never put limits on what God can do in your life," Franzman said. "No matter how bad the storm, God loves you. You never have to go through life's storms alone. God has not forgotten you. We must have the courage to ask God for help in all our struggles, large or small. From there we can learn to turn our obstacles into opportunities."

His book, Dead But Not Buried, begins with his childhood in Virginia. Always wanting to be one of the "good guys," he would dress up as Zorro and pretend he was fighting evil.

"There wasn't a tree that was safe from my "Z' signature," Franzman wrote in his book. "I always wanted to play the good guy, never the villain. Even at a young age I wanted to save the day. As a child I had but one dream, and that was to be a police officer."

During his teen years, Franzman's parents bought a motel on Clearwater Beach. Life was good. He tried out for the high school football team.

"I soon befriended a young man on the team named Mark Anderson," Franzman wrote. "His father, I later learned, was the pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in downtown Clearwater."

Franzman began attending church with his friend.

"My life was changed forever spiritually," he wrote. "After speaking with Mark about spiritual matters on our way to school every morning and attending a church revival at Calvary, I became a Christian by praying and inviting Christ into my heart."

In 1979, after graduating from high school, Franzman's application was accepted by the Dunedin Police Department. He soon graduated from the police academy.

"As I stood in front of the mirror in the dressing room at the academy, staring at myself in the official uniform that Dunedin officers have so proudly worn over the years, it hit me. My hard work had finally paid off. I was now Officer Mark Franzman."

For almost three years, he lived his dream.

"I loved my new career so much that I would volunteer to work a second shift," he wrote. "I was single then, so I had all the time and freedom I needed to put into my career. And I put a lot into it!"

Franzman enjoyed the camaraderie of his fellow officers and developed a close bond with them.

Then everything changed.

On Halloween night in 1981 Franzman, then 23, was scheduled to work from 3 to 11 p.m. Despite a foreboding that something "big" was going to happen that night, he decided to work half of the next shift to help a friend out.

The shift was busy. Franzman responded to several brawls, loud parties and domestic disturbances.

At 1:30 a.m. he answered the department dispatcher's call to respond to a fatal crash on U.S. 19. He was to direct traffic around the wreckage so troopers could concentrate on their investigation.

Franzman details the accident that altered his life forever.

"I was distracted for a brief moment when a fellow officer standing a few yards behind me yelled out a question. I took my eyes off the oncoming traffic for just a few seconds.

"Then I heard another officer yell, "Watch out!' I quickly turned my head back toward the slow-moving, oncoming traffic in time to see a yellow Honda Civic heading directly at me."

The car was traveling at an estimated 45 to 50 mph. Franzman tried to dive out of the car's path, but it was too late. The impact threw him more than 80 feet down the highway. He landed at the feet of another officer.

"That officer said I landed like a ton of bricks," Franzman wrote. "He thought I was dead since I made no sound or movement."

Franzman had suffered double compound fractures to both legs, a broken right forearm, broken collarbones, a broken left foot and several broken toes on both feet.

The driver who hit him had more than twice the legal limit of alcohol in his system.

As the officers took the driver to jail, he said, "What's the big deal? Cops know they are at risk when they pin their badges on."

Meanwhile, paramedics could not find a pulse in Franzman; nor could they register his blood pressure. They told an officer that he was dead. In tears, the officer pleaded with them to do something to save his friend.

The paramedics prepared to insert a long needle into Franzman's heart to pump in adrenalin. Then they would place electric paddles on his chest to shock him back to life.

Franzman had a better idea.

He sat up.

"I calmly told them I thought my legs were broken and my right arm was broken. If they would be so kind as to help me get over to my patrol car, I would gladly drive myself to the emergency room and get checked out," he wrote. "Obviously, I was in shock."

Emergency room doctors struggled to stop the young officer's bleeding, putting towels on the floor so they wouldn't slip in the massive amount of blood he had lost. At some point the patient became coherent enough to realize what was happening.

He was terrified.

"The double compound fracture that I had in each leg was in the shinbone area," Franzman wrote.

"If you have ever bumped or been kicked in the shinbone, you probably remember how painful that can be. Imagine looking down at your legs and seeing the four broken ends of each of your shinbones coming through the skin. There are no words that I can share to describe what I was experiencing at that moment."

Franzman begged a fellow officer to kill him.

"I couldn't imagine drawing another breath in that amount of pain and I wanted to be put out of my misery."

He spent the next 16 hours in surgery. With all the trauma his body had been through, doctors didn't expect him to live more than a few days. If he did live, doctors told his parents, he would probably lose his legs, or at best, would never walk on his own again.

But God had other ideas, Franzman says.

In the first days in recovery, he saw a book by Billy Graham standing open on his bed table.

He still doesn't know who left it there, but the words he read have remained with him. Inscribed inside was a verse from the Bible, John 11:4: "When he heard this, Jesus said, "This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God's glory so that God's Son may be glorified through it.' "

Those words would prove prophetic.

In the remaining chapters of his book, Franzman relates the details of his slow, painful recovery and rehabilitation, including learning to walk again and enduring more than 20 operations. (He has had several more surgeries since then, bringing the total to almost 30.)

He candidly shares the feelings of depression and anger that he experienced. He testifies to God's healing power of both the body and the soul and relates how his ordeal has strengthened his faith.

He tells how God gave him the strength to forgive the young man who ran into him that night and of the joy he experienced when his legs finally began to heal.

He shares his strategy on how to have victory and spiritual growth in the midst of adversity and how to find a new life through salvation in Jesus Christ.

Today, Mark Franzman, 47, serves his community in a different way. Shortly after he returned to work in 1983, he was asked to share his ordeal with church members. After he spoke, many people told him how they had been moved by his story. One woman told him that hearing him speak may have saved her life.

That night Franzman thought about the service and the people whom he had helped. He got out of bed and found the book that had been mysteriously placed next to his bed after his first surgery. He reread the verse inscribed inside.

"At that moment," he wrote, "I decided to tell my story to as many people as would listen."

Over the years Franzman has spoken to thousands of people about overcoming adversity, setting goals and forgiving others. He has addressed people at churches, schools, corporations, civic groups, prison youth camps and Sunday school classes.

At police Chief Burch's invitation, Franzman will share his story with Citrus County High School students around prom time.

"I feel every high school student in this country needs to hear this story," Franzman said in an interview. "It has already impacted thousands of lives. It's just the tip of the iceberg. As long as we keep reading about the tragic deaths caused by impaired drivers, I'll keep sharing my story.

"I feel that I am a blessed and privileged man to have such a life-changing story to share."

Dead But Not Buried: A Modern Day Miracle of Triumph Over Tragedy, by Mark L. Franzman, is available at http://franzman.com The author can be contacted for motivational speaking at

[Last modified January 14, 2006, 01:38:14]