SCANDIA, Minn. (AP) - A Minnesota man who survived being stranded in his car for days during a North Dakota blizzard is hoping for another miracle after his stay in the hospital resulted in a cancer diagnosis.
William Mendoza, of Scandia, was traveling to his hotel during a business trip to North Dakota when he got caught in a blizzard on Feb. 6, KARE-TV reported. He was forced to spend two nights roadside, with no phone and only a blanket to keep warm.
“I knew I was in trouble when the gas ran out,” Medoza said. “I had no idea if I was going to be there another five minutes, or is it going to be another five days. You don’t want to go to sleep because I want to wake up in the morning.”
After braving two nights stranded in his car, a telephone lineman eventually spotted Mendoza’s vehicle the next morning.
“It’s the greatest relief in the world,” he said. “The first thing he said was, ’We’ve got to get you to a hospital. You need medical attention.’ I was the weakest I’ve ever been in my life, I think.”
Mendoza’s body temperature had dropped to 90 degrees when he arrived at the hospital in Fargo, North Dakota. Doctors treated him for minor frostbite and hypothermia, but grew concerned when Mendoza remained disoriented.
“That’s when they discovered the lesions on my brain,” Mendoza said.
Doctors found out that cancer from Mendoza’s kidneys had traveled to his brain, progressing to stage 4.
His wife, Vicki Mendoza, said “We went from the sheer jubilation of having a God-given miracle, of him being saved in the truck after two nights, to finding out he has cancer.”
But William Mendoza said he’s staying positive and has received many messages of support in the mail and through a GoFundMe page.
___
Information from: KARE-TV, http://www.kare11.com
Please read our comment policy before commenting.