LaGRANGE - Baptist pastors like to preach about resurrection. On a rainy night before Christmas, they saw it happen.

It was an annual gathering of the Troup County Baptist Association. About 40 pastors and their wives headed for Baptist Tabernacle in LaGrange to spend the evening eating mounds of food, laughing at associational missionary Aaron McCollough's bad jokes, and participating in a cut-throat gift swap.

But before the last piece of ham was served, Bob Comerford stopped breathing.

Comerford, a retired associational missionary from Florida, and his wife, Betty, were guests at the dinner. The couple, members of Callaway Church in LaGrange, moved to the city three years ago to be near their son.

At first someone thought Comerford was choking, but as he slumped and began to fall from his chair, it became obvious something was seriously wrong.

Several people laid him on the floor and made room for two nurses - Rebecca Parkerson, pastor's wife from County Line Church, and Janet Geter, pastor's wife from Bethel Chapel, both in LaGrange - along with James Adams, pastor of Pineview Church, who also works as a lineman for the city of LaGrange.

All three had been trained in CPR, but only Geter, a former ICU nurse, had ever been called on to perform the lifesaving technique.

"When we started CPR, there was no pulse and he wasn't breathing," Parkerson said.

Although the outcome looked grim, the three continued CPR efforts for several minutes at the constant encouragement of Adams.

"We have to breathe for him. We can't stop. We have to keep breathing," Adams repeated as the drama unfolded.

Coming back

Parkerson breathed for Comerford, her mouth on his to force air into his lungs, while Adams and Geter alternated on chest compressions. As the minutes ticked on, the only sound heard was Adams' steady voice counting off breaths and compressions.

At one point, Robert Burnett, pastor of Davidson Church in West Point, suggested the rest of the group pray.

"I was so glad he suggested that. I was too panicked to think of anything," McCollough recalled.

After several minutes - "But it seemed like an hour," Parkerson said - Comerford took a quick breath and opened his eyes. By the time paramedics arrived, he was able to speak slowly.

"That was amazing," Adams said later. "You get training (in CPR) but you never think you actually are going to have to use it. I'm so glad I remembered how."

Paramedics quickly treated Comerford, giving him medication and oxygen and packing him up for a trip to the local hospital. In the emergency room, Comerford was alert enough to joke, "I sure know how to break up a party."

After a series of tests, doctors admitted they didn't know what happened to Comerford, who has a history of heart problems.

"Our doctor was honest, he said they just do not know what happened," said Comerford's wife, Betty.

Comerford's quick return to consciousness isn't the normal outcome of CPR. Doctors suggested that Comerford's heart didn't actually stop, but that his pulse was so weak no one could feel it. Betty Comerford isn't convinced.

"I was a cardiac nurse for years. I've done this before and I know what a pulse feels like. I felt for a pulse (when he went down), and there was none. I really thought I'd lost him," she said. "You don't usually come back that soon, but when the Lord brings you back, then you come back."

The results of CPR are never certain, said Barbara Hudson, executive director of the Troup County chapter of the American Red Cross.

CPR training useful

"You just don't know what the results will be. That's the whole purpose for doing CPR. That's why you do not stop once you start. You keep circulating that oxygen," she said.

Betty Comerford believes that philosophy as well. Years ago she performed CPR on a woman who collapsed in a grocery store.

"She came back. You could hardly feel a pulse, but she was breathing. I've done CPR several times, usually in the hospital. But you never know when you'll need (that skill).

"I tell everyone who is physically able to be trained in CPR. It's a good thing to have. But it's good to have the Lord on your side, too."