Declared Dead Twice: Double-Lung Transplant & a Second Chance at Faith | Kyle David Interview

When the Beat Stopped: The One Who Found His Faith Again

Before the hospital gowns and machines, Kyle David kept time for a living—a professional drummer and percussionist whose life moved in rhythm. Then a hurricane evacuation from New Orleans spiraled into a fight with COVID pneumonia, and the beat of everyday life stopped.

What followed was a grueling medical odyssey: three hospitals, 50 days in ICU, a month-long coma, and moments when he was declared clinically dead—twice. Doctors said his only chance was a double-lung transplant. Airlifted to San Diego, Kyle spent nearly seven months learning to breathe, speak, and walk again.

Somewhere in that long valley, Kyle’s faith cracked. He prayed what felt like his last honest prayer:
“Lord, either heal me miraculously now—or let me come home. I can’t do this another day.”
Silence seemed to answer back. For the first time, the drummer who had grown up with church in his bones felt the tempo of belief slipping away.

Then came the moment he thought might be his last. During a brief outing from the hospital, Kyle’s portable life-support machine failed. With a tracheostomy tube and seconds to spare, he rose from his wheelchair and shouted so nurses and his mother could hear:
“Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior.”

If this was the end, he wanted his final words to be his clearest.

Days later, a matching set of donor lungs became available. On March 3, 2022, surgeons performed the transplant that saved his life. Recovery was slow and humbling—scales and rudiments, but for breathing. Yet as his lungs healed, something deeper healed, too. The God who seemed silent in the ICU met him again—quietly, steadily, mercifully.

Kyle describes what happened next as a re-tuning of his soul. The brushes became sticks; the metronome clicked again. His near-death season led him into the ancient prayers and steady rhythms of Eastern Orthodox worship, where he found a church that helped him rebuild his life in Christ with reverence, beauty, and community.
“If I hadn’t walked through that fire,” Kyle says, “I might never have discovered this path. My suffering became a blessing in disguise.”

Kyle’s story is more than a medical miracle. It’s a testimony for anyone who’s suffered long, doubted hard, and wondered if the music of faith was finished. God did not waste the silence. He used it to write a new song.

Hear the full conversation on Cloud of Witnesses—Kyle’s journey from a failing heartbeat to a living hope, from the edge of unbelief to a renewed confession of Jesus as Lord. Subscribe for more stories of lives transformed when grace meets the impossible.

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