God’s Hand
by Alice Rovney
This is a story of hope, a reminder of the closeness of God’s hand upon our lives. My husband and I began the morning of April 21, 2008 like most other families, getting the kids up and ready and piling in the car to drop our daughter off at Foursquare Christian School. We were recovering from a flu type illness that struck our family the week before. It was the same illness that struck the entire community of Crescent City. I believe the events that followed were partially related to that illness, but we had been sick before and had no reason to believe tragedy was lying in wait for us around the corner.
As we approached the corner of “G” street my husband said “Oh whoa!” He would usually say something like that if he saw something weird on the road, or someone ran a red light, or anything out of the ordinary.
I replied, “What?, what’s going on?” I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Brhian was already slowing the car down for the stop so I still wasn’t alerted to anything unusual.
But then I added, “Um, honey, you better stop the car we’re gonna hit that guy in front of us.” But the car didn’t stop and we bumped somebody. Now I knew something was wrong. Brhian had an excellent driving record with no tickets, fender benders, or anything.
His foot pressed down on the accelerator. I reached over and tried to pull his leg off of the gas but it wouldn’t budge. It was as if his leg had turned to cast iron and was welded to the gas pedal. The car sped off and careened toward the sidewalk. I saw us heading right toward a light pole and knew if we hit that thing we would all be dead. I grabbed the wheel. I tried to steer the car back onto the road. I remember driving between two vehicles just before we slammed into the back of a van. I saw the flashing police lights behind me.
I looked over to see my husband slumped over toward me. “Samantha are you okay?, Sid are you okay?...”Sid!”
“He’s okay,” said my daughter.
Within seconds the car doors were crunching open and somebody was holding my neck. All I could say was “Help my husband he’s not breathing. Are my kids okay? Somebody please help my husband! He’s had a heart attack or something.”
“I’ve got c-spine on this one” I heard the lady holding my neck say. I’m sure she was reassuring me of the wellbeing of my family but I really don’t remember that part. I do remember hearing a “Woo Hoo!” on the street and I knew they got Brhian breathing. Sammy was being attended to and somebody said she had blood in her mouth and needed to spit. I heard someone else say that Sid was going into shock. Then the kids were out of the car. The lady holding my neck needed to get to her daycare and seconds later EMT guys were pulling me onto a board. Everyone’s face was so friendly, except one person. He’s mad at us, I thought.
I was in the ambulance alone until the gentleman from the van we hit stepped in. He seemed okay and I wanted to apologize to him so bad. But, I just couldn’t bring myself to speak. My cell phone rang. I knew it was work. They would wonder where I was. I asked the ambulance person to please answer the phone. He did and he explained to my boss that I was just in an accident.
Later, lying in the hospital with people swarming around, I just wanted to know what was going on with my family. “We’re just trying to save lives right now” said the doctor. That scared me. Where are my kids, where’s my husband? A nurse was about to cutaway my clothes for my examination. I could hear people talking about Sam outside my room. “What about Sam I said?” I think somebody told me she was okay but I replied “No she’s not I can hear them talking outside my door, what’s wrong?”
Then an officer came in. I don’t remember exactly what she said but I think she held my hand. She reminded me that she was behind us the entire time. She told me what was going on with my family. I felt better knowing. She encouraged me by explaining that because I grabbed the wheel I saved the life of a little boy we almost hit. I cried. Thank God we didn’t kill anybody’s child. That officer was everything I needed her to be at that moment and I my eternal gratitude will never fade, nor will my memory of her.
As events passed in the hospital I saw that my seven year old son was fine. They brought him in to see me and I asked to be moved to Sam’s room. At that point I knew she would be flown to UC Davis Children’s Hospital in Sacramento and Brhian would be flown to Mercy in Redding.
Two of my friends/co-workers came in to see me. Actually they are more than that. Both serve as pastor to me and my family in one respect or another. I was glad to see them. My best friend was on her way. She would take care of Sid. Someone was calling my Dad. Good.
Pretty soon the pilot and team were packing Sam up for her journey. I asked for my bed to be wheeled close to hers so I could touch her. I massaged her hairline and held her hand. Her brother gave her a sticker. Then, before I knew it, she was on her way. Just before my release I sat in a wheelchair outside Brhian’s room waiting for them to wheel him out. He was hooked up to all kinds of scary machines and he was not conscience. I touched his arm. “It’s going to be okay honey. I love you.” I don’t remember anything else I might have said.
That night was a blur. My husband in one city and my daughter in another and I couldn’t get to either one of them. I had a broken collar bone and Sid was fine, just a little bruise under his arm. Then the call came. The surgery on Brhian’s heart was unsuccessful. He had a balloon pump and two stints. “We’re just trying to make him comfortable right now,” said the doctor. I cried. That was doctor speak for we don’t expect your loved one to survive much longer. “LORD, please don’t take my husband away from me.” We weren’t even there.
That week was a blur to me. It turns out my Dad was packing while he was on the phone with Sandy. My sister was there and caught wind of what happened and she started packing. My other sister was called and she immediately booked a flight from Texas and my Mom was packing right away. They were on their way to see me and would stop in on Samantha and Brhian on the way. I asked my mom to stay with Sam. She was all alone and probably very scared, even for a brave thirteen year old. Samantha had abdominal bleeding most likely caused by her bruised spleen and bruised liver. She had a fracture in her lower spine and her jaw was broken at the mandible and in pieces. She needed reconstructive surgery.
Click here for (next column)
In the meantime I learned that the therapy needed for Brhian’s heart might have been the cause for two brain bleeds, one on his left hemisphere in the back and one on his right hemisphere toward the front. The doctor believed I would get my husband back but it would probably take two to three years, or more, of rehabilitation with some uncertainty on personality changes or permanent disability affects. But the doctor assured me that with patients like Brhian and the location of the brain injuries that it would most likely be his short term memory that was affected so he should remember his family.
Brhian continued to stabilize in the CCU. I was blessed to learn that staff was praying over him and my cousins Grace and Luke were showing up every day to pray over him and be with him in my stead. By the end of the week they were moving Brhian to the Neuro-science floor. He wasn’t moving his right side yet and that concerned me. He didn’t pass his swallow test so I had to make a decision to allow the doctors to place a g-tube in his stomach to feed him that way. He hadn’t eaten since they took him off of life support, which I think was about four days.
Samantha’s surgery was a success and my mom was with her. Also, her uncle, her aunt and her cousin on Brhian’s side (whom we had not seen or spoken with since she was a baby) had stopped in. She was regaining her sass and grunting at people, including complaining to the nurses, which, by the way, I was fine with. She was alive. Her uncle spoiled her that week and brought her and my mom home to me on Saturday the 26th. The next day they started their trek back home, including dropping my mom off at her house on the way, and Brhian’s sister stayed with him at the hospital. I was grateful. He wasn’t alone.
Today is May 7th, 2008 and I am filled with God’s joy and hope. Hope for my family, hope for the compassion of mankind, and hope that our story will renew my brothers and sisters in Christ, in some way. You see, I later found out that not only was an officer behind us the entire time as the accident took place, someone just happened to be on scene who carried defibrillators. What are the odds of that? We almost hit a group of kids walking to school but because I grabbed the wheel when I did, that did not happen. Praise God. Over 50 churches all up and down California State were praying for my family including churches in Indiana, Kentucky, Wisconsin and Washington. People had started a rotating dinner list and my neighbors, co-workers, and friends were cooking my family meals and bringing them over. What a blessing. And, most shocking to me of all, members of the community wanted to set up an account where they could contribute money to help me and my family with expenses during this time. I never felt so touched, nor did I ever think I would be the recipient of so much caring and compassion.
It is evident to me that God’s hand is all over this thing. No one else was injured besides us and the gentleman driving the van. Nobody died. We hit the best possible thing we could have, a van moving in the same direction we were at a low speed. This must have given our impact some give. What could have ended in tragedy with hurt or killed children walking to school did not. Samantha’s injuries were bad, but the bruises to her spleen and liver were minor and the doctors expect them to heal nicely. The fracture in her lower spine is small and stable and she is not paralyzed or hindered in any way except restriction from contact sports, bikes, and skateboards for the summer. You can hardly tell she had reconstructive surgery on her face by looking at her. Brhian continues to make marked improvement every day. Everyone who belongs to the Lord and enters his room has testified to the strong presence of the Holy Spirit. Brhian spoke his first words on Friday May 2nd, mainly uh huhs, yes, hello, hi, Sid, and I love you. He read a list of words to the speech therapist, thought the year was 1946, knew his name, and got his age close at 36. He’s 37.
That same week he began to move his right leg. On Tuesday May 6th Brhian passed his swallow test and was able to eat his first meal, which his sister mashed up and helped him with. He ate good. The last word I heard yesterday is that the doctor thinks he’ll be ready to move to rehab anytime. And, while the people at Mercy were great and worked hard they were having trouble located a rehab center that would accept Brhian. I called Rogue Valley Medical Center and so far all looks promising that Brhian will be accepted. This is great news for me and the kids because now we will be able to see him three to four days a week, instead of maybe once a month. Finally, Brhian has begun to move his right arm and his right hand slightly. He cannot sit on his own yet but I am sure that is just a matter of time.
AAA is a great insurance company and my agent orchestrated prying my car trunk open (now in Vallejo, CA) to retrieve Sam’s book bag and he is going to mail it me. They also provide a service to help me shop for a car and there is a possibility it could be delivered to me.
While this may be the last paragraph of text for this story it is not the end of it. Rather, we now stand at the beginning of a new life together. A life that is already full of God’s mercy, His Grace, His Power, Peace and His Presence. A life that does not end in tragedy, but begins with renewed hope and faith. Amen.
 Alice Rovney |
|
Alice was raised in Southern California where she later met her husband, Brhian. Together they made a life for themselves in Northern California, just twenty miles south of the Oregon Border. They are raising two children and beginning their own Accounting business named AB Accounting. Alice is currently working toward a Master’s Degree in Accounting and will eventually sit for the CPA exam. With over eleven years of accounting experience Alice hopes to make her new business a success. She has been writing ever since she can remember. Recent events have caused her to seriously consider writing as a secondary profession. Alice is currently working on her first book, an auto-biography. |
|
|
|
Thanks Alice for this heart filled story... John Wolf
