Pastor details 50-day medical ordeal after airport collapse

A Macon, Georgia pastor is recounting a 50-day fight for his life after collapsing at a St. Louis airport in 2023, surviving two cardiac arrests, major emergency surgery and blood loss doctors described as medically inexplicable. Greg Hershberg says the ordeal left him with a limp, a new view of suffering and a new book about the experience.

Why it matters: - Greg Hershberg’s survival after extreme blood loss, cardiac arrests and organ failure is the kind of case doctors described as outside normal clinical explanation. - The story has become both a personal testimony and a public account of how critical illness can reshape faith, caregiving and recovery. - Hershberg’s account is now reaching readers through a new book, extending the story beyond the hospital.

What happened: - Greg Hershberg, 65, collapsed at a St. Louis airport on Nov. 13, 2023. - Doctors later found a life-threatening staph infection in his bloodstream, acute kidney failure that required dialysis and internal bleeding. - Hershberg spent 50 days in the hospital. - He suffered two cardiac arrests during the hospitalization. - Emergency surgery lasted 12.5 hours. - Hershberg said his surgeon described the outcome as a “phenomenon.”

The details: - Surgeons removed Hershberg’s aorta and iliac arteries and rerouted blood flow through an axillary bifemoral bypass. - Hershberg lost about 12 units of blood, more than the roughly eight units in an average adult body. - At one point, his heart kept beating with almost no blood remaining in his body. - Hershberg said there was no clinical explanation for why his heart continued to beat. - He said his longtime vascular surgeon, trained to work with facts and measurable outcomes, could only describe what happened as a “phenomenon.” - Hershberg said he came out of the ordeal with a lasting limp. - The hospital experience included moments of severe despair during recovery.

Between the lines: - Hershberg’s story blends medical rarity with spiritual interpretation, which may resonate with readers looking for meaning in survival. - The account also highlights how family testimony and physician reflections can deepen a personal medical narrative. - His careful approach to telling the story suggests the experience remains emotionally and spiritually complex.

What’s next: - Hershberg has published his account in a new book, At Death’s Door: 50 Days Between Life and Death and the God Who Didn’t Leave, released by Aneko Press. - The book includes perspectives from his wife, Bernadette, their four adult children and physicians who treated him. - Hershberg says the experience changed how he thinks about illness, suffering and caregiving. - He leads Beth Yeshua International, a Messianic Jewish ministry with congregations on six continents.

The bottom line: - Hershberg’s recovery stands out not just for its medical severity, but for the way he is using it to frame questions about faith, survival and why some people live through the impossible.