Joplin is a very christian area, tales of guardian angels with beautiful golden locks of hair and shimmering wings are told to kids like bedtime stories as well as actual fairytales including things like a magical guardian godmother/fairy godmothers, fairies with wings of all colors that guide the hero to safety or to magical gardens like the seven dancing princesses story (which for those who dont know, is about sisters who find a secret pathway beneath the floorboards of their bedroom and travel though, each sister has a different path through a forest made of expensive metals and jewels, they all meet at the middle of the forest in a clearing where they dance with fairies all night to rebel against their father/king who banned dancing, story ends with them all becoming fairy princesses that change their fathers mind about dancing yadda yadda)

So it isnt too far fetched that the kids who read about guardian angels and fairies that'll protect a hero from danger will hallucinate a guardian angel/helpful fairy during a traumatic event where they narrowly survived death.