ONLY ON 13: Pastor helps find missing veteran suffering from PTSD
CYPRESS (KTRK) -- A 26-year-old Army veteran who escaped from a hospital in Humble Tuesday is safe, thanks to a pastor who took the time to help a stranger.
T.W. Stephens is the pastor of Greater New Direction Church in Cypress. To Danielle Ursell, he is much more than that.
"You are an angel," Ursell said. "A God-sent angel."
Ursell spent the weekend searching for her twin, Shane Zahn, an Army veteran suffering from PTSD. Tuesday night, Pastor Stephens came across Zahn outside of a Wal-Mart in Cypress.
"I said 'how you doing,' he said. 'I'm alright, I'm alright,' I said, you don't look alright," Stephens said. "You look like you're in a lot of pain. And he said, 'I am."
At that point, Stephens had no idea Zahn had escaped from Memorial Hermann Northeast in Humble before ending up at the Wal-Mart miles away in Cypress.
But Stephens knew enough.
"I kept seeing that pain in his face, like, 'it's over," Stephens said. "It's a deep look, like, I can't explain it."
Stephens has seen that look before -- on the faces of homeless men and women.
"That's what I do," Stephens said. "I'm out on the streets ministering when I'm not in church."
Stephens convinced Zahn to come to his church with him and then go to a nearby hospital. Zahn's family met them there.
"He prayed with us for a long time," Ursell said. "There was something about this man that Shane could talk to him."
Stephens said the family was overjoyed to see Zahn.
"Everybody was crying, hugging," Stephens said. "I was so happy."
Ursell hopes her brother holds on to that love as he begins mental health treatment at Ben Taub Hospital.
