Paul Marcum recalls his death 20 years ago and why he came back

On Jan. 3, Paul Marcum of Van Buren Township recalled his death 20 years earlier and why he had to come back.
He’s been telling the story of his out-of-body experience from the minute he was brought back to life with paddles from a heart attack.
Marcum, now 70, was a minister at the Downriver Assembly of God in Ecorse in 1999, and it was a Sunday. He was scheduled to be a guest speaker in Romulus, but, 18” of snow fell that Sunday and all the churches were closed.
He didn’t have anything else to do, so he decided to clean off the snow from his van. He used a broom and moved some of the heavy snow from the van.
But he became lightheaded and weak. He went in the house and prayed and then went back out. He wasn’t feeling well and he finally realized he was having a heart attack.
His wife Mary called for an ambulance, but it couldn’t get into his city street in Ecorse, so a fire truck was used to push the snow forward so the ambulance could get to him.
He recalled his pain was a 7 out of 10 and it took five minutes to get to Wyandotte Hospital. There he was given a drug called TPA that he was told could be fatal, but he did much better for two hours and then he coded — died.
He said he remembers instantly going to sleep and then he was in the Judgment Seat of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:8).
“I walked in a big court room and looked around. I didn’t recognize anyone. Then, I saw Jesus behind a desk, talking and moving his head. I could see his features. My brother Billy, an ordained minister in West Virginia stood between us and told me, ‘Paul, go back and tell them there is a judgment.’”
That’s when Marcum said he came back and saw a doctor with a beard looming over him holding heart paddles. He told them immediately that he had an out-of-body experience and saw Jesus.
They put a stent in his “widow maker,” the 100% clogged artery, and then put him on a heart pump and in a special ambulance to transfer him to Oakwood Hospital, which had better facilities.
In the ambulance with him was a young doctor with a Detroit Tigers cap on his head, a male and a female paramedic, and a driver.
They had heard about his out-of-body experience and asked him to tell about it, so he whispered the story. He said it was difficult with the heart pump on him and he was weak, but he told his story.
Marcum said he recalls the female paramedic was crying and said she wanted to be saved. He said he told her, “You can get saved right now.” He said he had saved hundreds of people in his career in the church.
The doctor took off his Tiger cap and said, he wanted to be saved, too. So did the other two. They prayed together.
Marcum told them they didn’t have to belong to any denomination or religion, they just had to ask. “Believe in your heart, confess with your heart and you will be saved,” he said, citing Romans 10: 9-10.
Marcum said his oldest son, Bo, who was away from the Lord at the time, was the first family member to join him at Oakwood.
“I told him, it’s real. I just saw Jesus,” he recalls. He remembers how this touched his son.
He said after treatment he got out of the hospital and could hardly walk. He said he had a pacemaker and a defibrillator.
He now goes to a doctor at Michigan Heart Center. He said a heart normally works at 55-70% of capacity and his heart was 35% when his heart attack happened. He said his doctor said now it is 18-20%.
He’s been taken by ambulance five times since then and retired from the ministry in 2013 to reduce the stress.
After his heart attack, he was concerned about the cost of the treatment, some $30,000 worth, but between the time he went in to the hospital on Sunday and got out on Thursday, his wife had received $15,000 in donations from churches that knew him. At that point he had been an evangelist for five years.
He went to work for Ford Motor Co. when he first came to Michigan from West Virginia. His brother Billy led him to the Lord in 1978 and he left Ford after 15 years to become a minister. He was ordained by Assembly of God 40 years ago.
He said his World Church Organization insurance he had paid his hospital bills.
He said he and his wife, who celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary last June, purchased their house in Ecorse for $28,000. After his heart attack, his brother came from West Virginia and redid the house for them and they were able to sell it for $85,000 when they left Ecorse to come to the Belleville area in 2002.
He said he was in Honduras on a missionary trip when God told him to come to Belleville. He said he prayed with his sons the next morning and the next day he got a call from a pastor in Cheboygan.
“I saw you and your sons pray in a vision,” the pastor told him. “You need to do whatever it is, so we can get some sleep.”
Marcum said when he got to Belleville there were 10 members at the church at 870 Savage Road.
He brought 15 members with him and the church returned to the Assembly of God denomination. The River of Life Assembly of God now has attendance of 200-250 in two services every Sunday.
The church is planning to break ground on a new sanctuary this summer and members are going through the preliminaries with Van Buren Township building officials. Assembly of God members in different building fields will be coming in RVs to help with the construction.
He said he goes to church regularly, but his sons now are pastoring the church. Eddie Marcum is the senior pastor and Stephen Marcum is assistant pastor.
Marcum said since it was the 20th anniversary of his near-death experience, he felt moved to share it with Independent readers. Maybe a heart will be touched, he said.