23-year-old Bob Devall of Jackson is a walking, talking miracle. He almost died Monday afternoon when one of two scissor jacks gave way and his mother's 4,000 pound minivan landed on top of him.
"He was breathing when the car first fell on him and then I could hear him not breathing anymore," Bob's mother Kathy Devall said.
Cool as a cucumber, at least at that moment, Bob's quick-thinking mother grabbed a hydraulic jack and managed to lift at least a little the van pressing down on his chest.
"I just needed to get the car off him so that he could start breathing again," Kathy said.
Police and paramedics arrived, added another jack and pulled Bob out.
"All I remember is trying to get a hose loose from my mom's car steering pump and next thing I remember I'm waking up in the hospital," Bob said.
Bob has welts on his chest from the undercarriage and his eyes look like something out of a monster movie. Bob broke all the blood vessels in his eyes from the weight of the van on top of him and his effort to push it off.
Bob was, at first, placed in a medically-induced coma while doctors evaluated his injuries. They told him it's nothing short of a miracle he came out of this so well.
"Nothing got broken, nothing got punctured. I mean brain damage? He already beat them to it," fiancée Katie Pischeda said with a laugh.
"I feel like someone was looking out for me," Bob said.
Aa higher power, perhaps, but definitely his mom! So says Bob's dad Bill.
"It's wonderful, I mean she saved our son," Bill said.
"He's our own live superhero," Katie said.
With the Superman t-shirt to prove it, it'll take several weeks for his eyes to clear up, but Bob is expected to recover fully from his brush with death. And he's promised to take more precautions next time he jacks up a car.