Whether it was pure luck or divine intervention, Dick Ferguson will always be thankful for running into Troy Lindsey on Feb. 9 at a gas station while in Pickens, Miss. It was this coincidental meeting by the two locals (who knew each other) that could have been what saved Ferguson’s life.

“If it weren’t for that man right there, I don’t know that Dick would be here,” Toni Lanford-Ferguson said.

The day before the chance meeting, Ferguson had dropped off his wife, at the Jackson airport and had continued on his way to Kentucky for a business trip.

(Toni was headed to North Carolina to visit her sister and recuperate from shoulder surgery.)

He said he had started to experience some dizziness, but decided to continue on, stopping at Dyersburg, Tenn. for the night.

His symptoms intensified, he said, so much so he could hardly get out of the bed during the course of the night.

“I got up the next morning and shaved and showered,” he said, and headed out to the car to turn on the defroster, since it was snowing.

While sitting in the car, Ferguson said he became dizzy and the car felt like it was spinning.

It was at that point he said he called his physician and decided to return home.

“I thought if I get on the interstate and put the cruise on 72, I’m good.”

Ferguson assumed his symptoms were from a reoccurring bladder infection since he had to use the facilities often.

Traveling back towards Vicksburg, Ferguson said his driving became erratic — running a stop sign in Senatobia and then eventually running into the guardrail at the station in Pickens.

“The last thing I remember was my car was bouncing because I was going so fast when I turned,” Ferguson said.

“Once you got into the station you slowed down and you kind of bumped the side of the guard rail. After that you got out of the car and spoke to me and that’s when you fell to the ground face first,” Lindsey said.

Even though Ferguson claimed he was OK, Lindsey insisted they call 911.

Ironically an ambulance had just gassed up at the service station and was pulling out when Lindsey said they got them to come back and check Ferguson out.

Lindsey said Ferguson stood up, but he encouraged him to lie back down because his head was bleeding.

Lindsey said he called Ferguson’s wife, Toni, on her husband’s cell phone so the couple could talk.

Toni said her husband told her he was fine, but after she spoke with the EMT’s, she realized he needed to go to the hospital.

She said she asked the ambulance driver if he could transport her husband to the Baptist Hospital in Jackson and then asked Troy if he would follow in Ferguson’s car and meet her son at the hospital.

Ferguson spent four days in the hospital and following multiple tests, he was diagnosed with E. coli bladder infection that had worsened and developed into severe sepsis.

“We will be forever grateful for the angel, who just happened to be there for Dick on that fateful day,” Toni said.

Lindsey, who said he has known Ferguson since the early 1970s, said he was glad he could help.

“All I can say is that I was thankful for being there,” Lindsey said.

“Not as glad as I am,” Ferguson said.