I didn't search before posting this so sorry if it's a repost. I saw an article link when browing the Ford Social site. Thought I'd share since it was Raptor related and not your typical Raptor story.
Source: Ford Social: When I Needed It, My Raptor Was There For Me.
Source: Ford Social: When I Needed It, My Raptor Was There For Me.
Jim on FordSocial on January 6th said:When I Needed It, My Raptor Was There For Me.
I thought to share a story about something that happened to us over Christmas a week or so ago.
Like other Raptor owners I’ve taken some good natured ribbing over my Raptor. My neighbors have called it a “Monster Truck” and joke about how they can hear it pulling into the neighborhood even when they’re inside their houses. I’ve frequently been asked why I “needed” the “big” motor. (6.2L) My friends on Facebook universally mock it as “Truckzilla” and I know that, deep inside, they’re just jealous.
This Christmas we were down visiting my wife’s family in IL. She grew up on a farm outside of Bloomington and whenever we make the trip we always take my truck. (This time Santa needed us to lug some boxes around.) I get along well with the in-laws, our son gets to drive Grampa’s tractor and Santa even manages to find us.
Sunday morning after unwrapping presents we were sitting at the table having breakfast when my wife began to slump over the table. She was unresponsive and slurring her words. We helped her to a chair and I asked her to recite the alphabet which she was halfway able to do. When I asked her to make a fist with both hands she could hardly her fingers. When I asked her to move her feet she was able to make them twitch but then seemed to blackout completely. My wife is in her early 40’s and in otherwise excellent physical condition.
The area that my in-laws live in is serviced by a volunteer ambulance group. Once dispatch makes a call the volunteers marshall to the ambulance and when it’s completely crewed they head to the emergency. The wait time can vary.
Unsure of what was happening I made the decision that rather than wait we would drive to Bloomington to the hospital. At the time my greatest concern was that is my wife was having a stroke we needed to act quickly to attempt to get the stroke reversal medicine T-PA into her system. We loaded my wife into the truck and my mother in law and I began heading into town leaving my very confused son with his grandpa.
I don’t normally drive too fast but Christmas morning saw me driving as fast as I dared. (Long straight stretches, thankfully little wind and hardly any traffic.) We were on two lane blacktop the whole way and as we would come up on another car I would flash my high beams and we would pass. (Most of the people we passed were other farmers who recognized what was going on when they saw the emergency blinkers and would pull over and wave us on.) We made it to the hospital emergency room in less than 20 minutes including the city traffic.
My 6.2 Raptor handled like it always has meant to and our weight didn’t make a lick of difference. (I’m 225lbs, the wife in the 130 range and, I’ll deny it if you ever repeat this, my mother in law in the 160 range.) Sync got me 911 dispatching who said to make the drive because it would be too late otherwise. Sync also got me the directions I needed. (Mother in law was busy trying to work with my wife.) Everything that I needed in my Raptor, when I needed it the most, worked.
By the time we got the hospital my wife seemed to be responding again. 6 hours of CAT scans, bloodwork and x-rays and we didn’t have any answers so they released her. Since we’ve been back we’ve seen our regular doctor, my wife’s worn a monitoring harness and we have more appointments and tests coming.
On Christmas, having our Christmas dinner in the hospital cafeteria, my Mother in law and I were trading notes about what had happened. We both had thought my wife was dying when we left the farm and though we were shaken we were both glad about the outcome. At one point she remarked she didn’t think their little economy Japanese car would have made it as quick and she was glad I had my truck. At that point she squeezed my hand and said “Thank you.”
I guess in posting this here I want to pass that along to Ford and the SVT team: Thank you for making the truck that when I needed it the most did everything I asked of it.
