[0:00] Hello, friends. Welcome to another episode of Tell Us a Good Story. Our next guest has one of the craziest stories you will ever hear. Five years ago, the news headlines read LSU football players shot by dog. When you read that or you hear that, you immediately think, what? I don’t understand. Well, today you get to hear that story with our guest, Matt Branch. You guys, this man is a former Division I college athlete, played football at LSU from from 2008 to 2012. And in December 2018, was involved in a near-death experience that almost cost him his life. However, to save his life, they had to amputate his leg. This is an incredible story from his football career at LSU to how he turned his life to God after the accident. And I’m the one who heard Matt’s story on Phil Robertson’s podcast and then pitched him to Kevin. And this is one of her pitches that I actually liked. Yes. You guys, we can’t wait to hear this amazing story and conversation with Matt Branch. I’m Kevin and I’m Stephanie and during our marriage we have dealt with an electrocution, a brain tumor, brain surgery, then doctors telling us that children were not in our future, followed by miscarriage and then Kevin’s cancer diagnosis. However today we live a life completely healed and restored with three healthy children who doctors said were not possible and we’re here to tell stories that inspire, give hope and brighten your day. Welcome to Tell Us A Good Story.

[1:24] Okay, friends, before we get to this episode, just a friendly reminder to please hit the subscribe button on YouTube and Apple podcast or give us a review. Five stars, please. In our world, this is super, super important because it will help with the algorithm to make it easier for people to find us. And thank you for sharing our post across your social media. That really helps with engagement and with us getting guests. Yes. So, hey, if you want us to keep working our way up to talking to Chip and Joanna, please share us with your friends. But regardless, thank you for listening to tell us a good story. All right, Steph. I just want people to know that I brought him to you. Oh, you did? Yes, I did. That’s true. That’s true. You did. You made me aware of this individual. That’s very true. And his story. See, this is one of those examples where you gave me a name that I actually liked. I actually like this one. What? You should like a lot of them. I have a lot of great ideas. But this guy’s story, I’m like, I really want him on the show. And thankfully, we were able to contact him. Well, friends, our next guest is a former Division I college athlete who played football at LSU from 2008 to 2012. In 2018, he was involved in a near-death experience that changed his life forever. And he is author of the book titled Nobody’s Going to Die Today. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to Tell Us a Good Story, Mr. Matt Branch. Hey, Matt. Welcome.

[2:43] Hey, how are y’all, Kevin, Steph? How are y’all doing today? We are so good and so excited to talk to you. Yes, he’s a Southern guy. Obviously, did I give it away? Yeah, right. Listeners can tell already. So Matt, before we get into things, can you share the story of the meaning behind the title, Nobody’s Going to Die Today, right? Because you heard this a lot at LSU. So can you share the story of like the meaning behind that? Yeah, so first off, everybody can guess like, I did not die that day, you know, the day the story takes place. So that’s one meaning behind it. And it just kind of, came together with what my old strength coach, you know, she used to tell us every day. So we would have summer workout programs and we would be put through the grinder. I mean, it was in South Louisiana. I mean, we were touching a hundred degrees most days and they made us go outside and just countless wind sprints and everybody was balling over and, you know, just didn’t think we were going to make it through. And our strength coach would always yell at us when it was just the worst point of the workout. And he would say, don’t worry, hurry, y’all. Nobody’s going to die out here today. Y’all keep going.

[3:52] So that was his comforting words of advice to us is we’re not going to die. It might feel like it, but we’re not going to. So yeah. So after my story and everything happened and I wrote the book, I reached out to my strength coach, coach Tommy Moffitt. He’s at Texas A&M now. He’s the head strength coach at Texas A&M and told him my idea for the title. And I asked him, I was like, Hey, I want to, I want to, you know use your catchphrase as the title he was like heck yeah go for it and he said and i want you to write the forward so he was kind enough to write the forward to the book and everything so yeah we’ve we’ve kept in touch over this and he’s been really good to work with through all this so you know what when he said temperatures were reaching 100 that’s not even talking about the humidity right like right in louisiana oh so the other thing what i guess love hate relationship with the coach. You probably hated that guy when you were at LSU, right? In the moment, yeah, sure. I’m sure you did, right? But today, it’s like, okay, I see what he was doing to the point where you can call him years later, Matt, and he’s like, I would be honored to help out. That’s really cool.

[4:58] Yeah, no, that is really cool. And that’s exactly right. In the moment, you hate his guts, right? He’s the one out there making us do all this. But then hindsight is always 20-20, And you look back and like, those are some of the fondest memories, you know, I had growing up and everything. And I appreciate the wisdom and everything that he gave us over the years, even though in the moment, probably didn’t like him very much. Right. Right. So LSU, what is it like, Matt, to get recruited by SEC schools? Because Steph and I are huge college football fans. We’re in Columbus, Ohio. So it is like all high state stuff here, as you can imagine,

[5:37] right? So huge college football fans. So can you share this? I know one of your recruiting script stories was I think somebody actually kissed you and said, please come to LSU or something like that. Right. Like, can you share some recruiting stories? Yeah. So it was, you know, getting recruited was a was a crazy thing because back when I was going through it, it was a lot different than it is today. You know, today there’s a lot of money involved and there’s a lot of different things that are going on behind the scenes. When I was there, it was just pure experience. Like you love the school you committed to. You know, that’s why you went there and, um, you know, yeah, so.

[6:12] I did not expect to be a college football player growing up. You know, I was always pretty good at sports, but I did not think football was going to be my path to play in college. And it just kind of like fell out of the sky and landed in my lap one day. You know, I had a guy who was a year ahead of me in high school, and he was a big recruit. He was a wide receiver. And I had a lot of colleges that were coming to look at him and watch him play, and they just noticed me. And I was a big kid. I was like 6’6″, my junior year in high school. Oh, my gosh. 240 pounds and running all over the field, catching passes, making blocks. And college coaches were like, who’s this guy? You know, we need to be recruiting him too. So all of a sudden, just out of the blue one day, I start getting all these head coaches. Like Phil Fulmer was calling me and texting me. Ed Ogeron, he was at Ole Miss, was calling me. Like Coach Miles, Coach Saban, like all these guys. Oh my gosh.

[7:06] Out of the blue, yeah. And I’m just like, what is going on? And so I immediately my head just like blows up like I think I’m just hot stuff you know and um did anyone come to your high school then did any of those coaches come to your high school and like people are freaking out like oh my gosh Saban is in our school right now yeah coach Saban did come to our high school so he came and watched a basketball game that I was playing in and um and then coach Miles came to our school one day too I remember I’ll never forget this one we were all in the cafeteria, like the whole school was in the cafeteria eating lunch. And we’re all sitting there and I look up and I see a car pull in because like where our cafeteria is, you can see the front parking lot is just big bay windows. We see a car pull in park right there by the front door and then out steps Coach Miles. And I’m just like kind of turning red in the face because I know why he’s there. And then all of a sudden, one of the students in the cafeteria is like, oh, my God, that’s Coach Miles.

[8:06] Yeah so i like i get up and walk out to the front to go talk to him you know and stuff but yeah it was it was crazy yeah you have just you would never know who’s going to drop by and come see us so it was pretty cool did you know he was coming, And I did not know he was coming that day. He just kind of did a surprise visit. But most of the time they would give you a heads up if he was going to show up. But that day was just like a surprise. I guess he was in town and he just wanted to swing by and say hey or something. Okay. So I didn’t mean to cut you off there, Matt. But can you share the story about I think a fan came up and kissed you, right? Yeah. So this was at the Auburn game in 2007.

[8:45] So LSU won the national championship in 2007. It was a big year. That was my senior year in high school. OK, so as a recruit, you get home game tickets to every single game for the 2007 season. So before the game, they would let all the recruits on the field, watch the team warm up, watch the stadium fill up full of people. And then right before kickoff for the Auburn game, they told us to walk up the steps and go find our seats. So I’m walking up the stadium steps, you know, and all of a sudden I feel somebody grab my arm and, like, pulled me. So I turn and I look, see who’s pulling me, and it was this dark-haired girl, and she just pulled me in and, like, kissed me. And said, like, woo, come to LSU. I was like, okay. I’m coming. I’ll be here, you know.

[9:34] It was something else. But, yeah, that was just, I mean, just crazy stories like that, you know, happened. But, yeah, it was a really cool experience getting recruited in all the SEC

[9:44] schools back when it was a pure experience. Right. How hard was it being a Division I elite college athlete and do the academics? How hard is that? Juggling that? Yes. The academic side of it. You know, I did enough to get by. I’ll say it that way. My main focus was on was on football, is on sports.

[10:07] And we had to be there so much. It was like a full time job on top of going to school full time. Like your life revolves around that football program. And it’s not just weekdays. It’s lots of weekends. I mean, obviously, during the season, like you’re doing something all weekend long. You’re busy and um there’s there’s very little free time for like breaks and just a personal life you know but yeah it is a serious challenge to be a full-time division one college athlete and a full-time student so they schedule your classes around football so you can’t have class during practice right nobody can have a class during practice the only time there would I would occasionally, like if somebody had a specific major and there was only one class available for their major and it had to be during practice, like they might try to make an exception or maybe allow the teacher to recorded session for them or something like that. But, yeah, so everything had to be scheduled around football. So our classes would just kind of fall wherever they could in between there to try to get to everything. so we could have enough hours and credits and everything to graduate at the end of the day. Well, it probably came to Matt like, well, it looks like you’re switching your major. Sorry, this class interferes with that. That happens. No, I’m serious. Does it really? Oh, yeah, for sure. For sure, yeah.

[11:30] It’s like, hey, there’s no classes outside of your practice time. So we might have to either push these to the spring or the summer because you can’t take them in the fall. So you just have to kind of hope like maybe this class is available another time of year or something like that.

[11:48] All right, Steph, I’m going to test you again here. What is your favorite book of all time? Obviously, it’s the Bible, Kevin. Yes. Nailed it. Very good. This time you didn’t say the book we wrote called You Met Her Where. But it’s still a really good book. That is true. And it would make a great gift for friends or relatives on their birthday or for Christmas. Friends, you can order your copy of our book titled You Met Her Where at kevinandsteph.com. And we will make sure to personally sign a copy for you or whoever you want. And as always, thank you for listening to Tell Us a Good Story.

[12:19] So I recently was on a trip and on the flight there and back, I read your entire book. Couldn’t put it down, Matt. Can you start off here and share basically the hunting trip that you went on and how your life changed December 28th of 2018? Yeah, that’s the day that will always stick with me and my family and everybody who knows me and everybody who’s read my story, you know, at this point. So that morning, December 28th, 2018, always got to start with that date in mind. We were at Eagle Lake, Mississippi, which is our hunting camp just north of Vicksburg, Mississippi, on the Mississippi River. So my family has a farm over there, and they’ve been farming that land for over 20 years now. And this was a typical trip. You know, right after Christmas, we would always go over there and duck hunt, deer hunt, and just hang out for two, three, four days, however long we could, you know, how much time we had. So typical trip for us. And so it was a crazy morning. And I can’t get into all the details. You know, you’ve got to read the read the whole story. It’s a lot that went into it all. But just some crazy, unusual things happened to me that morning. That’s an understatement. That’s an understatement. Yeah. With the TV and stuff. Yes. Yeah.

[13:37] So all of those things led to what ultimately happened was we were packing up our gear, getting ready to move to a new location. and I had laid my 12-gauge shotgun down in the back of a Polaris Ranger in the bed of one. So we’re all standing around trying to load our gear up, and we had a hunting dog with us, a black Labrador retriever named Tito. So he’s standing around, and we tell him to load up because we’re about to leave. So he jumps in the back of the Ranger, and he kind of moves around, tries to find a spot to sit. And after a few seconds, we hear a sound of a muffled bang.

[14:13] Caught our attention pretty quick. So immediately everybody looked at me when they saw that where the gun was pointed. You know, that bang sound was my 12 gauge shotgun that went off because the dog had bumped it. So everybody’s looking at me and they see a hole in the side of the range of bed. It’s about the size of a Coke can or so about that.

[14:37] And I look down and it’s kind of strange. Like I didn’t feel anything like it didn’t hurt. You know, you think if you get shot by a gun, like it would hurt really bad, but I didn’t, I didn’t feel anything. It didn’t hurt at all. So I look down and I see the cup can size hole and I’m like, I don’t know, maybe, maybe it didn’t hit me too bad. So I went to take a step back. And when I did, my leg didn’t move. I tripped, I fell to the ground. And, um, that’s when the adrenaline rush just ran over me like a freight train. Like the reality of what just happened sunk in at that point. And, um, I had been shot. I had experienced basically every hunter’s worst nightmare. And um i quickly realized like i was not gonna survive if i did not get help very soon because my body just fell limp my blood pressure dropped so the shot had ended up hitting my femoral artery um it hit me right on the top of my left my left thigh and groin area is where it hit me and i mean it just it destroyed my femoral artery that’s what the surgeons told us later on after After they had performed several surgeries on me trying to save my life and my leg. So anyway, my friends acted really fast. They get me to the highway and called 911.

[15:51] So the ambulance pulls up and then they start to cut my waders off. And that’s when they realized like everybody understood at that point, like how bad it was. Because I had basically bled out at that point. Yes.

[16:03] So they load me up, put me on a stretcher, load me in the back of the ambulance. And I remember just a little bit of being loaded in the ambulance and then I remember kind of going down the road and just kind of feeling like the the ambulance kind of swaying you know in the curves in the road and then out just curtains and that was the first time that my heart stopped beating um they said I went into cardiac arrest for somewhere around 45 minutes total that day 45 minutes. So Matt, Steph’s a registered nurse. I’m freaking out over here, Matt. So everything you’re saying is just clicking with her. Yes, like the fact that this bullet hit his femoral artery and he’s like talking to us right now is a miracle in itself. So one thing that hit me, Matt, was you described in the book how I think you had your waders on, right? And so when they took that off, they didn’t realize how bad you were bleeding until they took that off and it was just like a river. And it was, it was, yeah, yeah. It was like, like I’ll describe it like blood, like you pour water out of a pitcher. That’s what the blood coming out of my waders was like, just pouring it out of like water out of a pitcher.

[17:13] Yeah it was a a truly just like terrifying experience for them because of the waiters they didn’t know how bad it was until that point you know and so they had tried to like so some volunteer firefighters had showed up they had tried to tourniquet it but it was so high up like it didn’t really do any good you know but yeah so um another crazy story that actually i just found out this was very recent so i was recently on another podcast on the phil robertson’s podcast Podcast.

[17:41] That’s what Steph sent to me. Right. That’s what she’s like. We got to check this out. That’s what we watched. So listen to this. So, um, so after I went on that podcast, I had somebody reach out to me on Facebook and they just sent me a message randomly.

[17:53] And they said, Hey, I heard your story on the unashamed podcast. I just wanted to let you know that, um, my daughter was the one who performed CPR on you, never stopped doing chest compressions. She was like and she kind of gave me her backstory but basically she was um she was at home for the through the holidays she was a student at Mississippi State and she had like come home to try to figure out what she wanted to do with her life and in the meantime she was just took like a part-time like nurse tech job at the hospital there and so they wheel me in and she’s the one in charge of doing chest compressions on me and they said that like she never stopped doing like she never stopped for like an extended amount of time just physically exhausted emotionally exhausted and it was just so cool like you know just telling my story and then more parts of my story come back to me that i had no idea i had no clue about you know and like she was not a nurse she was like a nurse tech so maybe she was afraid to stop doing chest compressions maybe an experienced nurse might have been like he’s he’s gone like there’s no saving him but she kept going which which allowed, you know, blood to continue to pump through and allow my brain to probably stay active. So, you know, that was a big fear from all the nurses and the doctors and the whole medical team throughout the whole situation was they didn’t know if my brain had been cut off from blood and oxygen at any point because of the blood loss.

[19:22] They didn’t think I would wake up the same person. So just a just another little piece of my story that’s come back to me recently. That’s just like.

[19:31] Amazing. So you get to the hospital, your friends inform your wife, your wife at this time, you guys have like a one-year-old, okay? She gets to the hospital. She doesn’t realize the severity of it. She just knows that, hey, there was a hunting accident and you may have got shot in the foot or something or shot in the leg, right?

[19:49] She doesn’t know the severity of it until she gets to the hospital. So can you take it from there then when, like what happens when she and I believe like over a hundred people arrived to the hospital for you. Yeah. Yeah. It was, it was very overwhelming for her because she was just completely caught off guard. Like she gets a strange phone call that said, I’ve been shot. No details. Cause honestly, they didn’t really know many details at that point.

[20:15] So she, she gets in the truck with my brother. My brother lived, he lived right down the road from us at the time. And he came and picked her up and drove her to Vicksburg. It’s about a 45 minute hour drive from where we lived in Monroe. Room so she shows up to the hospital and then she just starts getting these little pieces of information just little pieces like oh uh he was shot and it hit his femoral artery and she was like wait what so she had called her mom and her mom was like her mom was also a nurse and she was like no that’s that can’t be like that’s not that didn’t really happen she’s like surely that didn’t happen you know we don’t need to think like that but it did so she’s sitting in the emergency room Basically, at this time, my whole family had showed up, a lot of friends, a lot of people had just shown up because they just, I mean, nobody knew. Everybody knew it was bad. They just didn’t know how bad.

[21:08] So she’s sitting there and waiting and waiting and waiting, and I’m in the OR, and I’m not really certain of the time. It was several hours. She had to sit and wait, just waiting on a phone call to know if I was alive or not. Anyway, they ended up updating the family and.

[21:27] Told them that I needed to be transported to a major trauma center, a major trauma unit in Jackson, Mississippi, which is University of Mississippi Medical Center. That’s the largest hospital in Mississippi.

[21:39] And they had to fly me there via helicopter because they said my body just wouldn’t be able to take being in an ambulance and ride.

[21:46] And they said I was just too unstable at that point. So they needed to fly me there. And this is this is more details to the story. And I believe this is in the book as well. So that helicopter flying me to Jackson was like another miraculous thing. So that day was really nasty day. It was cloudy, rainy. And initially when they called the helicopter in, they said, hey, we can’t fly today. There’s no visibility. The cloud covers are too thick. Like we can’t, we can’t get to you. We can’t get him to where he needs to be. And the doctors just pleaded with the medevac team. And they were like, please, like if you, if you don’t get here, like he is not going to make it. So they ended up flying to us but they had to go like all the way around they were stationed in natchez which is just south of vicksburg probably about an hour south they ended up having to fly west in louisiana north into arkansas and then back east into mississippi and fly down south into vicksburg just to have a clear path and they said uh the doctor that was on the on the um pad he said when the helicopter came down he couldn’t even see it he said all he All he could do is hear it until it got right on top of the pad. And he said, as soon as that helicopter landed, he said, the clouds just like just parted and like gave him a straight shot to Jackson. Wow.

[23:04] And this is from the, this is all come from the doctor. You know, this is what he’s telling us. Just crazy stuff that happened, you know, and then, and then I get to Jackson. And not only is it right sandwiched between December 28th, okay, sandwiched between Christmas and New Year’s, two major Christmas holidays in the U.S., okay?

[23:25] Every person I needed for my specific injury was there that day. Not like they were on call, they had to be brought in, like they were there. And they later told us, they said, do you know how rare that is for all of us to be here at the same time? And it was several different surgeons. It was a vascular team, plastic surgery team, orthopedics team. It was all different teams that I needed that day. And they told us like, you know how rare it is. And one of them was like, yeah, I’m only here like one week out of the month. And it was this week. Between Christmas and New Year’s. Which people never want to work. That does not happen. They never want to work that week at all.

[24:04] They could just meet in the hallway, like have a quick meeting on next steps, what to do.

[24:09] That’s crazy. That is crazy. Okay. Can you share the story then of your wife? Because now they’re coming to your wife, Matt, and she’s got to make all these medical decisions, which is like heavy stuff and stuff. This is going to hit home with you. I know. Yeah. So they get me to Jackson, all the surgery teams there,

[24:29] and my wife, my parents, family, all of them start showing up in Jackson. Now they made the drive over and they’re all sitting around waiting to hear back from the OR like, okay, what are we be doing so they’re all sitting there and i don’t know it had gotten up to probably close to 100 people at that point you know so many people had showed up my wife’s sitting there and then all of a sudden one of the surgeons comes through she jumped up to go talk to him he was like no no no go back and sit down he’s like you need to sit down so she goes back sits down and he comes over and he says look we’re gonna have to amputate his leg or he’s gonna die it’s like i need to know what what can we do like asking my wife’s permission like what can we take his leg and she can’t talk to me she can’t ask me what I want you know my dad standing there and you know the doctor’s not looking at him he’s looking at my wife at Leanna and she just looks up at my dad my dad was like I don’t know so she said yeah take his leg.

[25:34] And just the thought of that, like, I can’t imagine what goes through her mind, you know, of what if he wakes up and he’s mad at me for this?

[25:47] How is our life going to be different now? Like, what are we going to have to do differently moving forward? You know, how is our how how much is this going to affect not only her life, my life, but our son’s life? Our one year old baby boy who’s back home being babysat.

[26:04] And um yeah so she had to make the call right then and there you know it was instant like we got to do this now or it’s over so she makes the call and then they wait and they wait and they wait on them to come back out and say okay everything’s gonna be fine but that’s not what happened they they came back out and they said all right the surgery’s over but it’s still not good like we don’t know if he’s gonna make it through the night we don’t know so she’s just in tears like doesn’t know what to do and the only thing they said we can we can let you come back and see him and visit him you know we write this in the book and she comes through the big metal doors of the sic and walks down the hall following a nurse to the room and said when she comes in the the room like shouldn’t even recognize me like i was so puffed up and blown up they had filled me up with fluids and um just there was a full staff was in there he monitored me around the clock machines going crazy vent was pumping air in my chest kept helping me to breathe like i was being kept alive by machines at that point and they were doing around the clock blood transfusions just around the clock, just non-stop. You know, they ended up allowing her to stay in the room with me, in the SICU room, which is not.

[27:26] Not protocol. Typically, they say, you know, no one can stay in here. You have to go stay somewhere else. But they let her stay in the room with me just because they didn’t they didn’t think I was going to make it. So she’s she dealt with that for, you know, the first night. And then it was just a roller coaster over the next 12 days. That’s how long I was in a coma over the next 12 days of not knowing if I was going to make it, not knowing what the next surgery was going to discover, you know, how bad everything was going to be. But yeah, that was such a crazy ride. And I can briefly talk about it here, but the book does a really good job of

[28:03] explaining it all in detail. And basically, you’re going through every moment, every day that she went through in those basically two weeks of chaos.

[28:15] Steph, what is one of the most asked questions we get about Tell Us a Good Story? Do I really get that excited? Besides that one. Oh, how do we get all these incredible guests? Correct. And some of our best conversations have been with guests who our listeners have reached out to us and said, you should talk to this person. To name just a few, Nick Vujicic, Coach Tom Ryan, Carol Matico were all recommendations from our listeners. So if there’s someone you would like us to interview and think they might be a great fit for Tell Us a Good Story, please let us know at KevinAndSteph.com. You don’t even have to personally know them. True. But do me a favor. Before you submit their names, please make sure they are still alive. That has actually happened and it is super hard for me to find their contact information but regardless thank you for listening to tell us a good story you basically died or could have died did you have any walking to the light or see heaven or have any remembrance of those 12 days while you’re in the coma.

[29:15] I did not know. So I did have some crazy dreams. And if they were dreams, who knows? That’s what I’m calling it. But the dreams were so real, I thought they actually happened after I had woke up, after two weeks. It took my family a week to convince me, like, nope, you’ve been here this whole time. You’ve been laying in this hospital bed in this room for two weeks. You have not been out in the world doing whatever you think you’ve been doing. And, you know, it was it was really like my mind was blown almost because even today, you know, I still feel like those dreams and all that was like a part of my life. Like they’ve stuck with me that much. Wow. Yeah. So it was really crazy. And, you know, some of it could have been due to, you know, the medications I was on and, you know, everything else. But, yes, no afterlife experience. But it was it was like another life experience. And I guess if that’s a better way to put it.

[30:15] So Matt, at one point you wake up, but at what point do you find out you don’t have a leg? Oh, I was going to ask him that. Yeah. So that was not too long after I woken up. So that was another one of the tough things that Leanna had to go through. Because when I woke up, I was like a character. I was on all these medications. I was saying all this crazy stuff. It was funny. It was also not funny. kind of sad at the same time it was just a whole mixed bag of emotions so due to phantom pain.

[30:48] I’ve still felt my leg. So it’s as an amputee and not maybe not everybody understands this. You have what is called is a phantom sensation or phantom pain. So basically what it is, is it the limb that is gone feels like it’s still there. Like even right now, as I’m talking, you know, like I can still feel my left leg, like it’s still there. I feel it. Yeah. So when I woke up, I felt like my leg was still there. You know, it kind of felt it doesn’t feel the same. It kind of felt like it was itching, like my foot was asleep or something like that, you know. And so I kept telling people like, hey, can you scratch my left leg? Like, can you scratch my foot or whatever? And I would just get these blank stares from people. And I was like, what’s going on? Like, what’s the deal? Like, just scratch my foot. And I’ll never forget, you know, Leanna was she was worried about telling me, you know, because of my she didn’t know how I would react. And so she had called my dad and said, hey, he’s he’s asking about his leg. You know, he was she was like, I don’t know what to say. And I was like, I’ll talk to him, you know.

[31:48] So I’m sitting in the hospital, hospital bed, you know, being kind of a character, being kind of crazy. And my dad walks in the room, got a real serious look on his face. And my dad’s a big guy. He filled up the doorframe, basically walking in the room. And he sat down on the end of my bed. He kind of looked down at the floor for a minute. Then he turned and he looked at me and he had tears in his eyes. And I was like, what’s his deal? You know, what’s going on? I’m like, I’m good. He looked at me. He said, son, I had to take your leg to save your life. So your leg is gone. And, you know, immediately I was just kind of like, oh, OK. Didn’t really know what to say. Like, it’s never anything I pictured or imagined for my life. Right.

[32:40] And, you know, just kind of hit me and. By no means were we done talking about it, but I just looked back up at him, and I said, all right, Dad, could you at least go get me some mac and cheese or something? Because, like, I had been starving. They wouldn’t feed me. So, like, that’s what I counter him with. I look at him, and I’m like, can you get me mac and cheese now that I’ve lost my leg? So he laughed. He laughed because it was kind of funny in the moment. But by no means were we done talking about it, you know.

[33:07] But, yeah, it was just one of those things where, like, in the moment, it just kind of hits you. And it’s so shocking you don’t know how to react yeah so my go-to was just comedy you know a little bit of comic relief but it’s still tough today it’s something that you know life is just different it’s just different but we’re just doing our best and we’re making it one day at a time so so once you go to the hospital right you end up getting this prosthetic leg but matt you’re six foot six. So like how hard was it to one, make the thing to figure out how to use it? Because that is a huge prosthetic. Yeah. So I was in the hospital for about two months. And then during that two month span, I had a guy reach out to my dad and he had heard my story. And my story went like viral because the headlines were LSU football players shot by dog. That was what all the headlines went, Right. Which was crazy. But it actually ended up being a good thing because a lot of people heard about it, you know. And so this one guy, he heard about it. He reached out to my dad and he said, hey, I’ve got a son who has prosthetic legs.

[34:19] And he said, I’d love to talk with you and, you know, consult with you a little bit about, you know, what what it’s going to look like moving forward to try to get a prosthetic made. He said, I know a guy and his name is David Rotter and he’s in Chicago, Illinois. That’s where his practitioner office is. So he was like, hey, I’d like to offer to fly him down to Jackson to visit with your son, with me in the hospital. And he’s telling my dad this. So that was like, yeah, sure. Why not? you know so david rotter flies into jackson mississippi from chicago and comes and just sits down with me in the hospital and just kind of laid it all out for me he’s like hey man, your amputation is really tough it is one of the hardest lower leg amputations if not the hardest to deal with and to be able to walk with so he laid it out for me right then and there and so after i had gone through the the rehab process and felt like i had built up enough strength i I reached back out to David and I said, hey, I want to come up there and I want to work with you to build prosthetic for me to use. He was like, yeah, sure. So we booked the time about probably about five to six months after I had been shot. So five to six months post accident, we traveled to Chicago, Illinois to get a prosthetic made.

[35:32] So basically, I lost my entire left leg. I have no hip, no knee,

[35:37] no ankle. The whole thing’s gone. And I’m six foot six. so that’s like that’s a long leg to replace there like it’s about four feet total my prosthetic so we travel to chicago and he builds the whole thing in three days which is now i understand how crazy that is david he has a special gift he is a special talent for um building prosthetics so i show up and he builds me one up in three days and i’ll never forget whenever he had it all completed, he walks out of his back office where his shop is. He walks out with it. I’m in the lobby, like sitting on the couch. And he’s holding this huge, like, hunk of metal. It’s a little over four feet long. And it weighs 15 pounds. Oh, my gosh. And I’m looking at it like, what am I going to do with that?

[36:27] That’s just like a long broomstick, what it looks like. And he was like, you’re going to put it on, you know. So I put it on, and the way I have to put it on, so I, like, set my whole body in it, and I strap it on like a belt. Like, you tighten it up like a belt. So it’s not like your typical prosthetic where you use, like, a suction device or a clip-in. And you have to literally strap it on like a belt, like a pair of pants almost. So I put it on and I look at him like with big eyes, like now what? Like, what do I do? Like, this does not feel like a leg at all. Like, it just feels like, like I’m just walking, like I have a stick attached to me. Like, how is this going to work? And then he starts explaining it and, you know, talking about having my chest up and not looking down at the floor. I’m like, how am I not going to look down at the floor? Like, I got to figure out where this thing is going to go because literally I can’t feel it. So I’m literally walking on faith. Like this leg is going to swing. It’s going to land flat on the floor because if it doesn’t land flat, it’ll bend and then I’ll fall. It’s going to land flat on the floor. And then when I put all my weight on it, it’s not going to break. So you’re literally walking on faith with this prosthetic. So, after about 30, 40 minutes of walking back and forth in some parallel bars.

[37:45] He was like, all right, man, I’ve seen enough. I think you’re ready to go. So I like took a step out of these parallel bars, my security, my comfort, my safety, you know, so I don’t fall and just start walking across the room, walking across the floor in the room. You know, he couldn’t believe it. The guy who built it, David, he was like, dude, I have never, ever seen anybody walk day one with this type of prosthetic. It was like, that is very rare to see anything like this. And, you know, like I tell people, I was an athlete with two legs. I’m still an athlete with one leg. It’s just, it’s not the same for everybody. I’ve been, I’ve definitely been blessed by God with the ability to be able to physically do this, you know, and then the mindset to have the strength to push myself every day to make sure I’m strong enough, make sure, you know, I’m in good enough shape to be able to walk. But, yeah, so getting the prosthetic and all of that, you know, that’s that’s pretty much all I had dreamed about for about, I would say, five months. I was like, this is what’s going to give me my life back.

[38:50] Well, I gained all my independence back. You know, I can go and I can do things and went back to work and did all of that. But it’s nowhere near a real day. It’s just tough. It’s big. It’s clunky. It doesn’t move quite the same. It sucks all your energy out and you know immediately I just kind of fell back into the pit like Alright, this is it. This is my life. This is as good as it’s gonna get right here, you know But you know God God tends to use our our dark moments He tends to use them to speak to us, you know, and that’s that’s precisely what ended up happening from there You know, I got my leg. I thought everything was gonna be great. I thought we were gonna move on with life and, And then the reality sunk in, went back to a dark place, and then God revealed himself to me. And that’s really where the book started. That’s where the book comes in because, you know, I’m depressed. I’m down. I don’t know how we’re going to keep going like this. I don’t know how we’re going to live life like this. I had all these dreams before, and they’re all gone now.

[39:52] So I’m sitting in my truck one day, just depressed, whatever, listening to the Unashamed podcast, Phil Robertson’s podcast. And all of a sudden, it was just like it’s like God spoke to me like he just said now. And like I started shaking and I didn’t know what was going on. And it was like it was like he just hit me over the head and said, look, man, you’ve you’ve known of me basically your whole life. Like I grew up in church. I did all these things as a kid. He said, but you haven’t known me. You’ve known of me, but you haven’t known me.

[40:28] And immediately I was just like, I’ve got all this basic understanding. I’ve got all this basic knowledge, but I need to go back. I need to revisit this. And I went home and sat down. I just started typing at my desk and I typed for four days straight. Didn’t stop typing for four days. And then after that four days,

[40:45] I had wrote the book that you’re holding in your hand right there. Yeah. Wrote that book out in four days. And then, you know, from there, it’s just been a whirlwind. Man, it’s been a journey all the way to here talking with you guys today.

[40:59] If you like what you hear, please tell someone about us. As soon as this episode is over, go tell your spouse, your closest friend, a parent, a co-worker, or share one of our posts on social media. However, if you don’t like what you’re hearing, please do not. Don’t tell anyone. Don’t tell anyone. Don’t tell anybody. Just disregard this message. Don’t worry about it. Forget about us. Yep. Go on with your merry day. And to get more information about us or our entire catalog of episodes, be sure to check us out at kevinandsteph.com. Thank you for listening to Tell Us a Good Story. So you went from basically blaming God for the incident, what happened, to this attitude of, I’m thankful and look at the opportunities, right? The good things that have come from this. Yes, exactly. Exactly. You know, it’s hard to see positive things coming from a situation like we went through, but, you know, I can fully attest to, you know, how God has used this tough circumstance in my life to, you know, just be a little bit of a light in so many other people’s lives. And I’ve been able to share my story.

[42:06] Oh, dozens and dozens of times now, you know, speaking on podcast and speaking at churches, you know, I talk at a lot of churches and schools and banquets and, you know, corporate events, whatever it is. And I’m just amazed by how God has used one of the darkest moments in my life to be a light in other people’s lives. And it’s just it’s truly just mind blowing. And it just rocked my world, rocked my family’s world. And, you know, I’m truly, truly grateful for it. I’m truly grateful for the experience and everything now. Not to say that it’s not tough, but it’s definitely worth it in the end.

[42:46] How’s your wife doing? Because her world has shifted. did. Yeah. So it’s, I mean, it’s tough for her too, because she’s had to, you know, definitely pick up some of the pieces that I just physically can’t do. Like I can’t lift certain things around the house or carry certain things around. So she’s, she’s kind of filling in the gaps, but you know, we’re, we’re in it together. We’re working together as much as we can, but I will say, you know, for anybody out there listening, you know, like we could definitely use your prayers because it’s, it’s a constant struggle. It’s a constant battle every single day, you know, but overall she’s doing good with it. You know, we both kind of understand the big picture here now and we’re not so drawn down, you know, when the little inconveniences pop up throughout each day, um, you know, because we, we have just such a better view of the big picture overall now with the whole situation. So, and now you have two children, which I can only imagine Imagine, Matt, how grateful you are to experience life with your kids. But, of course, kids say crazy stuff. So when kids see you in public, how do they react when they see this giant leg that they’ve never seen before? So what do you say to kids?

[44:00] It’s best to have a few prepared statements for kids because they are going to ask. Yes. So I’ve had… Actually, just last week, my son’s school, he’s in kindergarten, and they had a career day. They had asked me to come and be one of the speakers for career day.

[44:22] Before school that morning, Barrett looked at me. His name’s Barrett. He’s six. He looked at me and he said, hey, Dad, could you not wear your leg to school today? I was like, okay, why? He was like, cause when I tell my friends, you only have one leg, they don’t believe me. You know, I was like, okay, I get it. He was like, nobody believes me. So I was like, I’m not, I said, I was like, I’m going to wear the leg. I was like, but I’ll wear shorts with it just so people can see, you know, he was like, okay, okay. That’ll work.

[44:53] I use crutches a lot around the house. You know, I don’t always wear it. So I go to the school and I mean, talking to the kindergartners and first graders and they all are just like, do you know you have a metal leg? I’m like, really? Like, you’re telling me this now? But they’re just full of questions. You know, I’ve come up, tried to come up with some prepared statements. And I’ll say like, well, you know, I didn’t eat enough vegetables when I was little. And one day it just fell off, you know, or the dog took it. Like, have you seen it? Like, if you see it, chase the dog down, you know. Just try to come up with funny stuff that parents will also approve of, you know, because you could say some things that might cause nightmares or something. Right. I was just going to say that. I was like, how many moms appreciate your vegetable statement? Oh, I’m sure. I’m literally like, yes, Matt. That’s exactly what happens. See what happens? Yeah, yeah. See, I’m telling you to do the right thing here. You better listen to me. Yeah, no, they like that one. They like that one. So I tend to use that one the most when I get asked. All right. I just have one final question.

[45:57] Do you still hunt? Yeah. Oh, yeah. I went hunting like three weeks after I got out of the hospital. Did you really? Yeah. Crazy like that. What did your wife, what’s your doctor, what were their reactions then when you’re like, no, I’m going out to hunt again?

[46:13] Leanna was not happy. She’s not happy. She was like, what is wrong with this guy? Are you kidding me? You almost died doing this, and now you’re going back. But no, it’s been a part of my whole life. And it’s not the hunting that caused it. It was me. It was my fault. It was user error, I guess you’d say, is the reason it all happened. So, yeah, I mean, I don’t hunt as much as I used to, mainly just because of kids and family life has just kind of taken over. But I still go. I still hunt quite a bit. Oh, that’s awesome. That is awesome. Good for you.

[46:51] Well, listeners, for more information about Matt, you can go to social media pages. Instagram is matt.underscore.branch. His Facebook is at mattbranch. And we’ll put links in our show notes. So you can click on those and go right to those social media pages. And his book. His book. Which is so good. Titled Nobody’s Gonna Die Today. It’s at Amazon. It’s at barnesandnobles.com. And I would highly recommend this because there’s a lot of details Matt wasn’t able to go through, right? Just because of time. But what I really appreciate is the perspective from his wife, right? And Matt, like myself, you married a saint, my friend.

[47:29] No doubt. She went through, but to get her perspective at the hospital about getting home and life is completely different. But then, Matt, all of the stuff you went through in regards to how the community stepped up and helped, even with a blood drive, was very, very moving. So I would highly, highly recommend this book. Hey, question. Do you know how many pints of blood you received over that whole time? Time they told us it was over 300 wasn’t that a record or something yes i mean gotta be a record somewhere i don’t i really don’t know but yeah that’s it was over 300 units total oh and there’s a great story in the book steph about how they got that amount of blood so there’s a great story around that so another reason to get that to get the book yes well matt thank you so much for doing this. I know you’ve shared your story, like you said, dozens of times, but I appreciate you coming here and sharing this with us and our listeners on Tell Us a Good Story. Thank you. Thanks, Matt. Yeah, thank y’all very much for the opportunity. I really appreciate y’all too.

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