WATCH: the boy who sought solace in a life-threatening car accident

At the age of 16, Ben Hylden breathed new life into his faith after he experienced a near death experience in a harrowing car accident.

It was a cold Good Friday in April, and 16-year-old Ben Hylden was crunched for time. Running late for an appointment, he figured he could make good time on the seldom-travelled back road where he would often push his aging Buick Le Sabre to its limits. The combination of speed and a half-frozen roadway proved to be an almost deadly combination.  

Fast forward a couple of minutes and Ben was about to be involved in a devastating accident that changed the way he viewed his entire existence.

Now a University of North Dakota graduate, author and motivational speaker, Ben has recounted his experience and how it led him to embark on a journey of finding his faith.

In his powerful true story, Finding Faith in the Field, Ben, who grew up on a dairy farm near Park River, recounts in chilling detail the moment that he lost control of his car and the thoughts that swirled in his mind as he lay in agonizing pain in an icy field — until everything went black.

‘Everything hurt; it felt like a bomb had exploded inside of me,’ Ben wrote in his book. ‘My lungs were filling up with my own lifeblood. I knew my life was about to be over. I didn’t think I could take much more. There was not enough air and too much pain. I never in my wildest dreams thought my life would end like this.’

Moments after the accident, Ben claimed he could faintly hear the voices of a man and a woman. In his mind, he called them ‘two nice people.’ Little did he know, the ‘two nice people’ were his parents, and his face was so badly damaged they hadn’t recognised their own son until they spotted a familiar winter coat that had been thrown from the car.

Riddled with severe internal injuries, a shattered face, and a traumatic brain injury, Ben was given just a 5% chance of survival.

However, Ben stated in his novel, which he wrote whilst attending university, ‘Many miracles happened on that day for my life to be saved. Yet the greatest miracle on that day remained a secret, even from me, until much later.’

Take a look at the video below to hear about Ben’s remarkable story in full.

Image: Aaron Burden