By The Associated Press
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A few days before the Upper Big Branch coal mine blew up, James Woods had a nightmare -- he was pinned down, held by his arms, unable to move.
It was, his daughter believes, "God's way of telling him that something was going to happen''.
Woods awoke from a coma in a Charleston hospital bed, and tried to yank out feeding and ventilator tubes. Doctors were forced to tie down his arms for more than a week.
His dream was right on the mark.
Twenty-nine men died inside Massey Energy Co.'s mine in Montcoal, an hour south of Charleston. One other man was briefly hospitalized, and Woods was pulled out barely alive.
More than a month after the accident, the devout Christian, devoted family man and determined prankster is a fraction of his former self, unable to converse and seemingly lost in a brain that was starved of oxygen from carbon monoxide exposure. Link
