Testimony of Healing January 1, 1991 Issue

"We've seen Christian Science healings before, but this is...

Susan Schaffarzick

"We've seen Christian Science healings before, but this is serious." This is what the doctors told members of my family when I was brought to the hospital emergency room after an automobile accident. I had been a passenger in a car that had rolled over twice down an embankment. The driver had not been injured, but I had been taped to an immobilization board and taken to the hospital. The doctor and an area specialist who had been called in for my case explained to me that their examinations and the X-rays showed I had broken my neck. They said the slightest movement could cause me to become a quadriplegic. They were quite concerned for me, especially after hearing that I wished to handle the situation through prayer in Christian Science.

I was praying all during this time to feel God's presence and to be led to do what was wise and necessary. I was also able to have a nurse call a Christian Science practitioner when I first entered the hospital, and I was receiving prayerful support from him.

The doctors told me I had few options. If I asked to be taken home (as I had), they said they might find it necessary to find a legal way to keep me there. Also, since no ambulance company would accept liability for me, my request to be transferred to a Christian Science nursing facility would be impossible. My only two options, they told me, were to stay and begin medical treatment immediately (which involved major surgery, months of immobilization, and a lengthy hospital stay) or to stay overnight in the hospital and begin treatment the next morning. I was then left alone to make my decision.

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