Thanksgiving for 1998 has passed-another year to be thankful for. The following is what I was very thankful for this Thanksgiving and all year long.
We started to mom and dad's the day before Thanksgiving, 1989-nine years ago. It is a 300-mile drive from Carrollton, Texas to Clarendon, Texas. My wife, Billie, was complaining of heartburn before we left, but insisted that we go anyway. She slept most of the way to Wichita Falls. As we drove through Wichita Falls, her heartburn became almost unbearable. Five miles north of Wichita Falls, I turned around to look for a hospital. She had chest pains, back pains, and her arms were getting numb.
The CB radio had been active. Twice, I asked for directions to a hospital on the CB and no one responded. It was like no one was out there. Coming into Wichita Falls from the north on 287, a large blue sign marks the exit to Wichita General Hospital. I did not see it. Downtown Wichita Falls has one- way streets for several blocks. Wichita General Hospital is a large building about a block to the right of southbound 287 before the first stoplight. As I reached the first stoplight, we saw a small blue hospital sign pointing to the right. I was in the middle lane and going through the intersection before I saw the sign. Knowing the next street went one-way to the left, I moved over and took that street. I circled the block and came back across southbound 287. Wichita General Hospital was about a half block to my right, but I did not see it. I looked to the left and saw a tall building with a white cross on top a couple of blocks away. That is where I headed.
The tall building was Bethania, the Catholic hospital. As I stopped at the Emergency Room entrance, two medics came out with a wheel chair, almost as if they expected me. They were getting Billie out of the car as I came around and told them she had chest pains. They told me that she was in good hands and I could take care of the paper work later. They said I had to move the car because I could not leave it in front of the entrance. After parking the car, I came into the Emergency Room and checked her in. She was already in a separate small room being treated.
The chief Surgeon "happened" to be on duty in the Emergency Room because it was lunch time. He came out and told me she was having a "small" heart attack and needed TPA, a miracle drug to break up the clot. Later they told me that we were almost too late.
I found out that all of the heart specialists in Wichita Falls practice at Bethania. The other hospital probably would not have taken care of her as quickly - nothing against them, just facts, since none of the heart specialists practiced there.
She was moved to CCU. Four hours later, I was visiting her during the visiting time, when her heart monitor went crazy. The beats showed erratically, and the monitor said "fibrillation" as bells rang. Anytime that I have seen the monitor show "fibrillation" in movies, the patient died. Attendants ran me out of the room as they brought a cart with the electric paddles into the room.
I went to the waiting room and talked to God. I was not ready to lose my wife of 34 years and asked God to take care of her. Within about five minutes a nurse came into the waiting room calling my name. The first words out of her mouth were, "Your wife is all right. We did not use the paddles. She recovered on her own." I thanked God.
The doctor did a heart catheter and then an angioplasty during a ten-day stay at Bethania. The angioplasty has been very successful, although she became an insulin-dependant diabetic during the following year. This year she was diagnosed with congestive heart failure, because of the damage done to her heart-but she is still with me.
We drive through Wichita Falls frequently and marvel that I did not see Wichita General Hospital. The only explanation is that God blinded me to Wichita General and guided me to Bethania. He made a point of it by allowing me to circle the block where I definitely should have seen Wichita General. If I had gone to the second street and turned right, I would have seen Bethania instantly. I think circling the block was God's way of showing me that it was not an accident that I missed Wichita General. I think He was showing me that He is in control at all times.
I thank God often for allowing me to enjoy the company of my wife, Billie, for a few more years. I hope that someone reading or hearing this story will realize what God can do in their life.
- Jerry Blackerby
