The Accident
Will describes the day of the accident in a post on the Living Waters Ministry website. It was the spring of 2005 when Will, his mother, and his sister were on their way to their grandparents’ house for spring break. It was a dark, rainy, windy day, and visibility was poor. After stopping at a fruit stand, his sister, Casey, who was driving, pulled back out onto the highway. She looked both ways and saw a truck driver motioning her onto the road. She slowly pulled back onto the highway—and was hit by an 18-wheeler going full speed.“It was a miracle anybody was alive.”
Mrs. Boggs recalls that when she came to, she could feel her daughter’s presence but that she could not feel her son. When she slowly turned her head to look behind her, all she saw was Will sitting in the back seat, covered with blood.
Will spoke to The Epoch Times, recounting the details of the day that changed his life forever.
“Nineteen years ago, I was in a very bad car accident, and a tractor-trailer hit our vehicle right where I was sitting ... They weren’t able to find any vitals when the paramedics arrived, and I was declared a fatality.”
With no vital signs, Will was immediately airlifted to a nearby trauma center, where he was given oxygen, and his heart was shocked back into beating. He was alive but barely clinging to life and in a coma.
Due to diffuse bleeding in his brain and blockages in his carotid artery, he had multiple strokes that paralyzed his left side. Scans of Will’s brain revealed that, as a result of the impact of the accident, his brain had been severed from his brainstem.
The Power of Faith
Will’s parents, Lee and Denise Boggs, are ministers and co-founded the Living Waters Ministry in 1998. They would not give up on their son and chose faith, prayer, and hope.Retrieving Will’s Bible from the wreckage, Mrs. Boggs began reading the word of God over her son, focusing on Will’s brain and brainstem. Every day, she read over him as he lay in a coma in his hospital bed. She read and prayed—holding onto hope for her son’s life.
Will said that a few days later, a second brain scan revealed a thin line connecting his brain and his brain stem that baffled the doctors. They were not entirely sure what it meant—but his mother knew.
She was right.
In the interview, she remembers telling the doctor, “God has said that we will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.”
Mrs. Boggs continued to read scripture over her son.
Will explains that somewhere around day 35 of his coma, his family began giving him an aloe acemannan supplement given to them by a doctor and friend of the family.
He turned his head.
A moment later, he said his first words since the accident:
“Ezekiel 16:6.”
The Long Road to Recovery
While in his coma, Will said he could hear his mother reading the word of God over him and that it gave him hope and encouragement.When Will regained consciousness, he faced a long, difficult recovery—he told The Epoch Times that he was significantly impaired. He couldn’t see out of his left eye and had double vision in his right, which, he was told, would require surgery to correct. He was paralyzed on his left side and in a wheelchair, and he was unable to walk or talk.
But slowly, he began to improve. He was still taking the aloe acemannan supplement, first in his feeding tube and then in his food once he could swallow. His double vision healed without surgery. He slowly regained the ability to move his left side and, with support, began walking with a cane.
Will says he was driven to recover. He told The Epoch Times that he was motivated to improve himself physically and be able to run again—something he had excelled at before his accident.
“From a wheelchair to walking with a cane, then barely walking, and then running. So, it just became an outlet for me to run. And I would listen to the Rocky soundtrack and then go running or, you know, do workout stuff. That was always a big inspiration to me—the Rocky movies and the Rocky soundtrack—that was a big motivating force for me.”
Will said it took him six months to a year to walk efficiently and a year or two after that to get to a slow jog. Because his left side was paralyzed, it took many more years to use his left hand and play guitar—something he loves to do. All in all, he says that full circle, it took him approximately 12 years to heal fully.
He explained that the dedication of his family was instrumental in his recovery.
Healing the Body With Nutrition
A few days before he came out of his 40-day coma, Will’s family began giving him aloe supplement, which he continues to take to this day—as do his wife and children. Will told The Epoch Times that he attributes much of his physical healing to its beneficial effects, especially restoring function to his left side and healing his brain.The supplement’s main ingredient, acemannan, is a phytonutrient and polysaccharide derived from aloe vera.
Dr. Reg McDaniel, an anatomical and clinical pathologist, developed the supplement Will has taken since his accident. He told The Epoch Times that he has been researching the health benefits of aloe acemannan for nearly four decades and calls Will’s recovery “the most remarkable case of restored life that has occurred in the 39 years I have been focused on what aloe acemannan can do to restore health.”
Dr. McDaniel explained its healing effects, telling The Epoch Times, “Aloe acemannan generates millions of adult stem cells from the patient’s bone marrow.”
Acemannan regulates and enhances the immune system by regulating the activity of lymphocytes, macrophages, and dendritic cells and promoting the creation of nitric oxide.
“NO [nitric oxide] is synthesized by many cells involved in immunity and inflammation and is an important toxic defense molecule against infectious organisms. It also regulates the functional activity, growth, and death of a variety of immune and inflammatory cells, including macrophages, T lymphocytes, antigen-presenting cells, mast cells, neutrophils, and natural killer cells,” the study said.
The review also discusses acemannan’s effect on stem cells, saying it “can stimulate the proliferation and differentiation of stem cells, improving the speed and quality of bone tissue regeneration.” The study also mentions that acemannan promotes soft tissue healing “by stimulating fibroblast proliferation and cytokine expression.”
Studies have shown that aloe can also benefit the brain.
Will told The Epoch Times that initial reports of his brain showed that many of his brain cells were black, meaning they were dead. He believes the supplement helped to restore function to his brain.
The Power of Forgiveness
Will attributes several factors to his healing: his family’s faith in God and refusal to accept the doctor’s dire predictions, the supplement that healed his body and brain, and forgiveness.“If they had blamed each other—if Mom or Dad blamed each other, or blamed Casey, and had been angry and bitter at each other, then they would not have been able to think, to read, to pray for my healing, because they would have been so angry and bitter,” he said.
Will told The Epoch Times about returning to high school after the accident.
When Will returned to high school, many former friends and classmates rejected him. He was going through the long and challenging process of recovery and was still learning to do things that his peers took for granted. Although it was a painful experience, Will said that with work, time, and prayer, he forgave them.
Will also struggled for many years to forgive his sister, who was driving the car that day, and his father, who did not accompany the rest of the family on the trip over spring break because he was working. He told The Epoch Times that in his mind at the time, if his father had been with them, he would have been driving, preventing the accident.
The Future
When asked about the future, Will told The Epoch Times about his plans.“I want to open up a faith-based health and wellness center that focuses on people’s spiritual needs, but also their physical needs. It would also focus on the family—helping families be restored ... I want to help people with their nutrition, their fitness, but also want to help people with their spiritual life, and awakening a generation.”
He says he has also been called to minister and that God started opening doors for him to share his story and encourage others. Will is also working on two degrees—one in health and nutrition and one in divinity—and is continuing to run.
“Right now, I’m training for a 16-mile race, but later this year, I'll be training for a 50k ultra marathon, which I’ve run two times now,” he said.
Final Thoughts
It has been 19 years since the accident that tore Will’s life apart. For a teenager who was not supposed to survive, he went on to talk, walk, run, go to college, get married, and is now the father of three beautiful children.He credits his incredible recovery to God, his faith, the supplement that helped to heal his body and brain, and the determination and unconditional love of his family, who never gave up on him.
When asked what he would say to anyone struggling, battling an illness, or feeling lost in the darkness, Will shared this insight with The Epoch Times:
“I think our suffering in life and the difficulties are God’s megaphone to get our attention—to draw us closer to Him.”
Will is an ordained minister and evangelist and now preaches for the Living Waters Ministry. In a message on the website, Will’s purpose for the future is clear—something he has been able to do in his own life and now wishes for others:
“It is my heart to see God take everything that is broken in your life and make something beautiful.”
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