Wednesday, March 14, 2007

A Reason to Believe

On October 7, 2002 at around 8pm, my wife and I were in a horrific car accident on the Mass Pike. We were driving towards Boston when we came upon an abandoned car in the high speed lane with no lights or hazards on. I swerved to avoid hitting it, lost control of the Explorer, and rolled the SUV for approximately 300 feet.

When the vehicle finally came to a rest on its roof, my wife crawled out and began frantically looking for me inside the dark wreckage. Moments later, a man appeared seemingly out of nowhere and asked if anyone else was in the vehicle. She told him that I was still inside and non-responsive. He crawled inside and found my cold, clammy and pulse-less arm, then made his way up to my head and found me not breathing. He rolled me over and cleared the vomit from my mouth and I quickly took a deep breath.

My wife thought that he was an angel, though she later found that he was an off-duty Massachusetts State Trooper that nearly hit the abandoned vehicle moments before we came along, and he had pulled over to call into the barracks for assistance.

He literally saved my life.

I was still unconscious and was brought by helicopter to UMass Medical Center in Worcester where I spent the next few days intubated and sedated with percocet. I had a concussion, multiple skeletal lacerations, a separated shoulder, and bruises everywhere.

In time, I recovered from everything, though I occasionally still pull bits of glass and asphalt out of my scalp that must have been trapped in there when they stapled my head back together.

This past Tuesday night, sixteen-year old Tim was hanging out near his home with some friends riding their skateboards. He fell off his skateboard and hit his head, as I am sure he had done numerous times in the past. This time, however, he was knocked unconscious and suffered a brain hemorrhage. Doctors operated to install a shunt to drain the blood from his skull, but it was too late. Tim was brain dead and is currently being kept on life support for the sole purpose of harvesting his organs.

I don't think that I have ever met Tim, though we have become quite friendly with his mother Paula who works at our church as the senior pastor's assistant. For the past few Sundays, she has told us that she is praying for our house to sell so that we can get settled in to our new place in Rhode Island.

There is no way to explain why I'm still alive after such a violent car accident and Tim is dead after falling off a skateboard. But I have faith that God has some purpose for both incidents.

Perhaps Tim's organs will save some person that will one day find a cure for cancer. Maybe they will become a teacher and greatly influence a child that will become President one day. Perhaps Jake, who wouldn't be here if I/we had died in that accident, will do one of these great things. I just don't know.

"My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,' says the Lord. 'For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts." Isaiah 55:8-9

This Saturday, we will be having a party to celebrate Jake's first birthday just hours after Paula buries her only son. Most of the people at our party will also attend the funeral, including us. Please keep Paula in your prayers as she is a single woman and will be living alone now. She has a 23 year-old daughter that lives in the area as well.

***UPDATE - Seven different people will be receiving Tim's organs over the next few days. I wonder what will become of their lives now.


Comments:
Wow. I don't know what to say. I'm dumbstruck.
 
i TRULY BELIEVE EVERYTHING HAPPENS FOR A REASON ...REASONS WE DON'T KNOW OR UNDERSTAND....I AM GLAD YOU ARE OK AND I AM SORRY FOR MS. PAULA'S LOSS...I WILL BE PRAYIING FOR HER AND HER FAMILY!!
 
it's good to know that tim will now save 7 lives...
 
wow...7 different people will live because of Tim, how wonderful for them! I'm sure that Tim's family takes comfort in that also.

Organ donation is the right thing!
 
i like your thought process here.

keep the faith and know that HE does truly have a plan for everything.
 
Brooke - I can't believe that I have silenced the babbling brooke. Oh My!

Greta - That verse from Peal Jam's Alive keeps going through my head:

Is something wrong, she said
Well of course there is
Youre still alive, she said
Oh, and do I deserve to be
Is that the question
And if so...if so...who answers...who answers...


Molly - I had heard some horror stories about organ donation and families becoming financially responsible for transporting the organs, but it wasn't all true. I'm a donor!

mgc - I know that He does, I just wish he'd let me in on it once in a while!
 
This post brought me to tears. I am glad you are ok and Tim's family is in my thoughts.
 
that is my biggest nightmare. I mean I really don't understand how you move on. things happen for a reason I suppose, but that just does not seem fair for that family and boy...
 
There are so many things we don't understand. Why does a drug addict get pregnant and carry to term while loving, responsible parents remain longing for a child that never comes?

Why does my friend get his head bashed in by robbers weilding baseball bats, leaving doctors baffled at his lack of brain damage, while another falls off his bike while WEARING a helmet and has to go to therapy to learn to walk again?

We don't know. Poor Paula. The pain of losing a child is unimaginable.

But don't you feel any survivor's guilt! Just make sure you're doing whatever it is you were meant to do!
 
WOW. That is so freaky to think a person could die from a fall off a skateboard. WOW.
 
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