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God’s Protection

by Brian Head

 
On the second day back at school after the August holidays, I was 11 and riding my push bike home from school with my brother's school case on the front handlebars.  While going up a hill there was a car parked in the gutter with two ladies in it.  I had to go around the car but when heading back towards the gutter, the case started to wobble, and then the bike.  Next, I was in the gutter.  The ladies picked me up and tried to assure me that my arm wasn't broken.  While my skin wasn't broken, you could see a bone protruding under the skin of my right arm.  The ladies drove me some distance, then dropt me at the end of my street. 

On arrival home, in much pain, my mother wanted to get an ambulance to take me to Ryde Hospital.  I told her I wasn't going to that hospital, and that I wanted to go to our GP in Ashfield.  Ashfield is a fair way from Ryde, so my mother said "You'll have to wait until your father gets home".  When my father arrived home we were off to Ashfield to the GP. 

It was common practice to have a three hour wait for the GP as he was an honorary at Western Sydney Hospital and was often called out.  On arrival he said, "Straight to Western Suburbs Hospital".  I was x-rayed and when the doctor had the result he came to give mum the news.  "Well, he's done a good job" he announced. "The elbow is smashed into 11 pieces and the growing surfaces have been damaged". He told mum that I may end up with three different scenarios:- (1) a stiff arm; (2) The arm may not grow; and (3) be most likely to get arthritis later on in life.  My mum was devastated, and said "if you can't handle it, get a specialist".  The doctor replied. "If I can't fix it, then nobody can." He had done 12 years at Sydney Hospital specialising in bones! 

I was in hospital for a week, waiting for the swelling to go down, before the operation could be done.   He then did a closed reduction, because he didn't want to possible complication of infection.  I was in plaster for over 4 months, and was not allowed to go back to school that year, for fear of further injury, which would be permanent. 

Mum and dad used to go to school every 2 or 3 weeks to get the work that I had missed but was told that I had not missed anything.  The school wanted me to repeat the 5th class because of the time that I had missed.  The school was told that, that was not an option, and I improved my ranking in the 6th class half yearly exams.

Over 50 years on, there's none of the 3 scenarios evident and the right arm is as good as the left. A man who had lived 3 or 4 houses down the round, within 3 months of my accident, fell off his scooter and had a similar fracture to his forearm.  He was taken to Ryde Hospital and now wears a scare a quarter inch long.

Editor's Note

Psalm 121:7-8 (NIV) The Lord will keep you from all harm- he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.

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