Lois Hynes

The God Who Heals

Just another day at the office… NOT!!

It was Maundy Thursday.  The year was 2002.  I remember it as clear as a bell because I was just about to finish up my last patient of the night and I was hoping that I would be able to get over to church in time for the service.   It was about 4:30 in the afternoon and I was just asking my patient what flavor tooth paste he would like me to use to polish his teeth when the lady from the front desk came back to my operatory and said that my husband’s boss was on the phone and wanted to speak to me.  “Really? That can’t be good”, I said to both of them. I asked my patient if he would excuse me for a moment and went to answer the phone. 

My husband Mike is an electrician.  He was hired as a “high bucket truck” guy because he has no fear of heights and is willing to do pretty much anything that might come up.  One time they needed to change a light on the outside of a bank building, so they were going to throw him over the top of the roof in a bosun chair.  They ended up hiring a 100 foot boom to reach it instead.  Mike had  had a few mishaps in the sixteen years that we had been married but nothing too serious.  A bat flew out at him when he was working up at the roofline of a two story house and he jumped back forgetting that he was up on the ladder.  He landed on his feet and only broke a small bone in his foot.  Another time he was putting long fluorescent tubes back in a box and one broke and cut the tendon in his little finger so he had to have it surgically repaired.  Little stuff like that.  I am not a worrier by nature.  If you are married to someone who has a dangerous job, policeman, fireman, electrician etc. you can worry all the time or say,” it is what he is trained to do and he loves it”.   Being a Christian, I always said it was in God’s hands.  “His eye is on the sparrow and I know he watches me”.

Back to the phone call.  “Hi Charlie, What’s up?” He proceeded to tell me that there had been an accident and he wanted to know if I could meet him at the Beth Israel Hospital.  I said that I could but that I would have to see if my dad could stay with the 3 boys (13yrs and twins 11yrs) so it would be a little while before I could get there from Medfield where I was working.  He said ok and then asked me something that made my blood run cold.  “Lois, the Drs need to know if Mike is allergic to anything or taking any medications.”  I said,”no but why can’t Mike tell them that? Are you telling me that Mike can’t tell them that?”  He said, “I don’t want to go into detail but the paramedics had to paralyze Mike at the scene and rush him to the trauma center.  Drive carefully but get here as soon as you can.”

I told my patient that my husband had been taken to the hospital and that I would have to go.  My co-workers said they would finish up for me and to let them know what happened when I got the chance.  My dad said he would stay with the boys and just as I was about to leave the phone rang and it was Mike’s sister saying that they knew about the accident and to come to Mike’s parents’ house in Brighton and we could go together.  How did they know I wondered?  It turned out that the accident happened not far from his parents’ home and someone in the store where it happened recognized him and called the family.  When I got to Brighton, the whole family came out of the house, mother, father, 2 brothers and 2 sisters.  They were all crying and so upset and I said, “Wait until we find out what happened.  We don’t know anything yet.” Little did I know that they had called the hospital and already knew how serious it was.  I was the only one who had no idea. 

Charlie was waiting for me and whisked me into the hospital to the intensive care trauma unit to meet with the Drs.  It was there, sitting down holding my hands, that he told me that Mike had been working on a high voltage fixture on the top of a sixteen foot ladder when he got electrocuted and fell to the floor striking his head on the concrete floor below.  He made no attempt to save himself so he was probably unconscious. He was at the front of the grocery store near the registers when it happened.  His head struck the floor full force and his legs landed on the conveyer belt that you put your groceries on.  The Doctor came in next to tell me that they were trying to assess the extent of all his injuries but that basically he had a bad head injury, broken ribs and a collapsed lung.  There could be a spinal injury as well but they were not sure yet.  They were having difficulty stabilizing him.  He left. 

My family in the mean time had alerted the church and the prayer chain was activated (by phone and internet at that time).  My mom and sister arrived and shortly after that, with our new pastor, Rob Perkins.  The Doctor came back and said Mike was on the ward now and I could go see him.  I walked out the door of the waiting room and as I walked toward the ward, the double doors flew open and a bed with Mike on it was being rushed down the hall as the Dr yelled “don’t go anywhere; I need you to sign some papers stat so we can operate!!”  All I could think was wow, this is just like you see on TV in all those hospital dramas only this was not TV, it was real!  The Dr came rushing back to say that Mike’s intracranial pressure which was supposed to be about 5 had soared up to 20 or so and if they didn’t relieve the pressure right away, he would die.  I said, “Where do I sign?”

We were moved to a more private waiting room and Rob asked us if we wanted to pray.  Let the praying begin.  The Dr said that they had relieved the pressure but did not know how much damage his brain had suffered, which was a moot point because they could not, as of yet, stop the bleeding.  Rob said, “let’s pray for the bleeding to stop.”  We did, and it did.  Thank you Jesus.  I sent folks home to their families; I called the boys and said that Dad was hurt pretty badly and that he would want me to stay at the hospital with him but that I would see them in the morning.  I learned much later of the outpouring of prayer on Mike’s behalf.  Mike’s family are Roman Catholic so all the churches in Brighton and the Boston area had Mass cards bought for Mike and the nuns and priests as well as the parishioners were all praying.  All the folks at NPC were praying.  All the folks they told, told others and they prayed for Mike.  All my patients in Medfield heard the story and they prayed for Mike.  All the boys’ teammates that Mike had coached prayed for Mike.  All the boys’ teachers, our neighbors in Dedham and Mike’s co-workers, prayed for Mike.  People that hardly knew him said they had an overwhelming sense that they HAD to pray for Mike.

The Doctors gave us no hope.  By Monday, Mike’s bedside exam had changed for the worst.  He was totally unresponsive except for a slight dilation of his pupils.  The Doctors called for a family meeting.  They said they had done all that they could.  They would continue with the same routine but by Friday if there was no change, we would have to make a decision as to what we wanted to do.  We needed a miracle.  It was at that point that I realized that I might lose my best friend.  I also learned that grief, true grief is not emotional, it is physical.  I felt like I was run over by a Mack truck and sick to my stomach all at the same time.  But even then, I felt God’s love reassuring me that it would be ok.  Not that Mike would live, but that His grace was sufficient for my needs. 

NPC sent in the heavy hitters as we like to say.  Not only was everybody praying around the clock, they sent in teams of folks to lay hands on Mike to pray for healing.  I told the nurses, who were restricting visitors to Mike that I wanted them to let in all who wanted to pray for him.  They said ok, but I’m not sure they thought it would matter.  IT MATTERED!!  By Wednesday, Mike started to respond.  He could squeeze my hand and blink his eyes in response to command.  By Friday when we met with the Drs again they seemed surprised and said, “Well I guess we have a different situation now and we need to talk about where you want Mike to go for rehab when he improves to that point.”  Thank you Jesus.

We never know why suffering comes our way; we only know that the Bible says that it will.  I often think about the perfect set of circumstances around Mike’s accident.  So many times he would be working on parking lot lights by himself, way out in the boonies nowhere near a hospital.  His accident happened only minutes from a great trauma hospital and right in his own back yard.  God is good!  To this day people still tell me how they get goose bumps when they see Mike at church, so well recovered, when they felt the pall of death over him in the hospital.  I had a chance to speak about his healing and my faith to my patients who asked for him and who could not understand how I could have handled it so well.  God’s grace is the only answer.  I would never have spoken to them about such a thing if it hadn’t been for the accident.  A dear sister in Christ, who has gone home to the Lord, Hazel Brock, told me while Mike was in the hospital, “Dear, I’ve lived a long life and I’ve seen a lot of things and of this I am sure, when God chooses to do a miracle, He goes all the way!”  She was soooo right.

In His Service,

Lois Hynes