My name is Clinton J Randall and my story is unlike any other…from drug addiction to prison and several life-threatening events, I have been through hell and back! Without God in my life, I would not have been able to come out the other side and share my testimony.
I was born in 1973 to a loving Christian family…so why did I take a dark path at a young age? Well, you can read more about my journey as you read further down the page.
My website was created to give others hope from battling addiction, physical issues or whatever struggle they may have. I use what I have been through in order to help others and show what God has done for me…even at the darkest times in my life.
My childhood was full of love, surrounded by family. My mother has always been there for me, but I lived much of my young years with my grandparents.
My Grandpa Dale was like my best friend throughout my youth. He and I did everything together…and even sometimes included Grandma Libby. Grandpa was a hard worker, having grown up working on a farm, he made sure I was always involved when doing yardwork on our 3.5 acre land inside the city limits of Greenville, Ohio.
What I remember most, was the road trip he, I and grandma took to a friend’s ranch in Wyoming. We got to see all kinds of great stuff that this nation has to offer along the way. I had the time of my life and being with my loving grandparents made it even better!
Every Sunday was spent going to church, where I learned about Jesus and the Christian “seed” was planted into my young heart.
As I went through my final year of middle school, my grandpa developed cancer. He went from a large healthy man to a shell of his former self…and that was mentally the toughest thing I have ever had to witness.
The cancer took my loving grandpa from me and that was devastating. I lost my best friend and my biggest fan in 1988.
At the same time that I lost my grandpa, my mother remarried and I had to move with her to Columbus. Though I did live with my mom in Miami, FL for a short time when I was young, the move to Columbus was a culture shock to me after living in the small town of Greenville for most of my life.
I began my freshman year continuing to participate in sports…football, basketball and baseball. I always loved to play almost any sport growing up, but this did not last long after I started hanging out with the wrong crowd.
It wasn’t long until I began using drugs and alcohol…and gave up on playing sports altogether. Drugs and the crowd of people I was surrounded by led me to experiment with Satanism and get involved in street gang activity.
I left Columbus in my junior year of high school. I returned to Greenville to live with my grandma, who lived alone in my childhood home. I resumed schooling, but my focus by this time was on selling drugs and partying with my friends. I dropped out of school with only a couple months to go of my senior year.
I surrounded myself with other drug users and even let some move into the basement of my grandmother’s home. The partying was a daily thing and it really did not matter what kind of drug…we did it all.
Drug abuse and constant partying led me to drop out of high school midway through my senior year. By this time, my friends and I began huffing. It did not matter what kind of chemical it was, if it got us high we inhaled it.
Huffing became a daily thing and by this time five people lived at the house with me. My grandma was a Registered Nurse at the local hospital and was gone each day for work, so most of the days my friends and I were unsupervised.
On May 27, 1992, we took a stolen propane tank into the basement to get high while grandma was at work. Not realizing the highly flammable gas was building up in the closed room, as we huffed for at least an hour. I decided to take a break, play my guitar and smoke a cigarette. When I sparked the lighter for my cigarette, the air exploded in the brightest blue flame I have ever seen. Immediately I dropped to the floor to try and put myself out. The other three that were in the room with me ran through the broken glass door and outside. I continued to roll on the ground…the whole time thinking to myself, “This is how I am going to die!”
Once the flames subsided, I then too ran outside to join my friends. All of us were in shock and I screamed to a friend, who was upstairs at the time of the explosion, to call 911. As he ran inside to get the phone, I could feel the burns all over my body and see my skin dripping from my body.
I could hear the emergency sirens getting closer and closer until the first rescue squad pulled into the driveway. The EMT immediately came to load me first into the squad and transport me to the hospital…where my grandma was working and unaware of the event that just damaged her home and left all four of us with life-threatening injuries.
The ride to the hospital for me was agonizing as I felt my entire body burning. I begged the paramedic to “save my life”. Once I arrived at the emergency room, my memory of that moment is still vague to this day. The ER doctors worked their best to stabilize me and get me ready for air transport to St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Ft. Wayne, IN.
All four of us were flown to hospitals, two went to Dayton’s Miami Valley Hospital after the helicopter landed in my grandmother’s large front yard, while myself and another friend, who suffered severe burns, were airlifted to Indiana.
Once my family was notified of my condition and where I was taken, they rushed to the hospital to be with me. The burn unit doctors told my mom and grandma, who had dropped everything to stay by my side, that I had a five percent chance to survive and that they should start thinking about making funeral arrangements, but God had other plans.
Aside from suffering first, second and third-degree burns over 95 percent of my body, I had a massive blood infection that left me fighting for my life. I was in a drug-induced coma for nearly three months, as doctors worked to save my life. I remember several times having vivid visions of being pulled by evil beings, that in my mind resembled people I knew, but were demonic. Each time I had these visions, two figures appeared to pick me up and carry me away from the evil forces that were trying to drag me to hell. I remember feeling at peace once these two “guardian angels” touched me.
I came out of the coma at the end of July 1992 and was in the worst pain of my life! At this time I had to undergo many surgeries to repair my burnt body. The skin on both of my legs had to be removed and replaced with skin graphs. My fingertips were burnt so bad, they had to be removed. A hole in the bottom of my left foot led to a bone infection and had to be amputated. I was a mess, but I was alive!
After nearly 18 months of being in the hospital and then rehabilitation, I was finally discharged to return home. I went to stay with my mother in Columbus so I could continue to heal and get back to a “normal” life.
The story of our survival of the explosion drew national attention and I was first contacted by the producers of The Maury Povich Show. After I and another friend who was injured in the fire appeared on the show, I was then contacted to come back to New York to appear, with two of my friends, who were also burnt, on 20/20 for a primetime interview about the huffing incident.
You would think after nearly losing my life to the explosion, I would have turned my back on drugs and alcohol, but that was not the case. Appearing on national television and in local media interviews, I was on the local police department’s radar. I was all along using and dealing drugs.
Suffering burns all over my body and having an amputated left foot was hard to deal with for a young man. I found myself using even more drugs than before and dealing marijuana and LSD (acid). Most anyone in the community who used drugs came to me and soon I became “Public Enemy #1” in the eyes of the police.
It wasn’t long before my drug-dealing days would come to an end. The police department sent a confidential informant to try and record me selling LSD…it worked. I was later convicted on seven felony counts and sentenced to serve 3-15 years in prison. After several failed appeals, it was time for me to turn myself in on April 4, 1994 and begin to serve my time.
To say I was a nervous wreck would be an understatement. This was not just my first time in prison, but I had never been behind bars before. I found myself locked up with every type of criminal you can think of. Not knowing how long I would have to spend behind bars was the worst part. I wanted to do everything I could to get released the first time I would have my parole hearing.
Prison is a different world that forces you to adapt to. Having physical scars and amputations made things that much more difficult to adjust to. I refused to be in a medical dorm, so I was in general population for the entire three years I spent in the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.
Since I did not graduate high school, I used my time to obtain my GED and take computer courses to help better myself and find my career path once I got released from prison.
On September 2, 2003 my life changed forever. The birth of my daughter, Chelsea Elizabeth, touched my heart like nothing else. Now I had this precious little miracle that I vowed to live my life for her and always be there for her. No longer would I let my selfish lifestyle get in the way of being the best daddy I could be!
Though my marriage at the time fell apart, not long after Chelsea was born, I dedicated my time and life to my precious daughter as a single father. We spent every waking moment together and I did my best to teach her the way my grandfather taught me. There is nothing I wouldn’t do to protect her and teach her about God. We spent many Sundays in church, surrounded by awesome Christian people.
Though we both have had many struggles over the years, Chelsea and I remain very close and I still do my best to help guide her through her young adult life.
After my divorce, I found myself spiraling back down the rabbit hole of drugs and alcohol. I started going to NA groups to try and get myself back on track. One of the organizers of a group I regularly attended asked if I would be willing to be part of a local men’s Christian retreat…I agreed. This was the best decision I ever made in my life!
Though I had no idea what to expect, I soon learned what an Emmaus Walk was all about. My first Walk was somewhat intimidating at first, but by the end of the 72-hour retreat, I felt changed inside. God worked on me and broke me free of the chains that bound me for so many years.
Despite all of the sins I have done in the past, I learned and felt that God’s grace and forgiveness were always there…I just needed to seek Him and ask His forgiveness.
On the final night of the Walk, I broke down and cried harder than ever before. I felt inside the grace and forgiveness God was waiting for me to accept. I learned no matter what guilt I had in my heart, He would take it all away and refresh my soul.
After my first Emmaus Walk, I was hungry to be part of it again. Over the next couple of years, I was part of four more walks, where I was able to give my testimony to others. It was an amazing and life-changing time in my life. I made good friends and was able to hold my head high because I knew I was forgiven for my dark past and Jesus loved me!
I worked in the architectural field, after graduating from college in 1999 with an Associates Degree in Computer-Aided Drafting, for nine years. I was ready for something different and I found my new passion once I joined my local newspaper as their Webmaster and Reporter.
I not only created an award-winning website, but spent many hours covering everything from court cases, car crashes, sporting events and all kinds of other breaking news. Once the community accepted me for the changed man I was, I was the go-to guy for breaking news. Before joining the local newspaper, there was very little online content for news. I was proud of what I had become and did everything I could to ensure all of our readers were always in the loop of what was going on in their community.
I was awarded several times for the work I did. The Associated Press recognized me for photojournalism and website design. The website I created also won a national award for design. I felt proud and was finally able to be a positive influence on my community!
On April 19, 2013 I was hard at work all morning, covering several local vehicle crashes with injuries. I felt a bit overwhelmed and had some tightness in my chest, but being the workaholic I was…I pushed on.
I was alerted of a third crash of the day, so I set out to the scene to get photos and information like always. I vaguely remember even leaving the news office and it wasn’t long after I suffered a heart condition which caused me to run a stop sign in the country. My vehicle entered the path of an oncoming large truck. The driver of the truck was unable to avoid the collision and T-boned the passenger side of my vehicle at about 60 mph.
I do not remember anything about the crash, but once first responders were on the scene, I was told that I was “taken death breaths”. They immediately requested air transport to get me to the trauma center at an area hospital. There was not much hope for survival, according to Sheriff Deputies, firefighters and EMTs. With the help of all the first responders, flight nurses and God, I once again beat the odds and woke up two days later.
My body suffered several skull fractures, a crushed right clavicle bone and a fractured right pelvic bone. Once the surgeons and specialists repaired me as much as they could, I was sent to in-patient physical therapy, in hopes of getting me back up on my feet.
I found myself humbled by all the community support I received during my rehabilitation. I had many visitors and even got help to replace my broken camera from a charity car wash organized by some friends.
My passion for reporting the news drove me to always work as hard as I could to be the best at what I did, but until now I never took the time to notice the positive impact my reporting had on my community.
It took a few months, but I finally was able to get back to doing what I loved the most. This time I knew I needed to take better care of my health to avoid another incident like this.
Though I worked hard to eat better and exercise more, the fire in 1992 damaged my heart and would need to do all I could to avoid heart failure and suffer another life-threatening episode.
With everything I have been through in my life and all the sins I have done, God never turned His back on me and I knew I needed to share my story with those in need of hearing it! To this day, I have given my testimony to area schools, church camps, NA groups and more. My message to each was always the same…take care of yourself and stay away from destroying your mind and body with drugs and alcohol. I can not take back everything I have done to myself, but with the help of God, I have a new passion of planting the seed of change in others before they take the wrong path that I did!
I am always willing to share my story and give a presentation. Click the button below to contact me to discuss a date, time and place where you would like me to share my testimony. Normally I do not charge to do this unless there is long travel and lodging necessary. May God bless you and keep you safe!