A year later! - Rector's Rambling for September 27, 2020

A year ago this Tuesday I began the adventure of lifetime.  One which I don’t care to repeat.

       In the picture, a screen shot from a video on YouTube, is yours truly being airlifted off a cruise ship in the Baltic Sea.  I am that orange speck in the middle of the picture, being lifted in a stretcher from the deck up to the helicopter.

That was Sunday night, September 29, 2019.  Within a few hours I was in surgery at a hospital in Turku, Finland, where they removed 2/3 of my large intestine due to an infection that started with diverticulitis and went rogue from there.

When the medical team, in consultation with the ship’s captain and the Cleveland Clinic decided that I needed to be medevacked to a hospital, things got really grim, really quickly.  My family (Jennifer, Meg, Will, and my mother and father-in-law, came to the ship’s hospital to “say good-bye”.  Jennifer had to pack a quick backpack for me to take – and, of course, that included my 1928 Prayer Book/King James Bible combination (after all, I had Morning and Evening Prayer to pray in the days ahead).  It was a most frightful and somber time.

Soon I was being carted through the back hallways of the ship, taken to a crew-only deck, strapped into a basket-type stretcher and in a few minutes time I was suspended in the air, slowly approaching the helicopter above.

I have to say, about half way up to the helicopter I had a thought, “this is kinda cool”.  But that may have been the morphine talking.

A 35 -minute flight back to Turku and by 3:30 AM I was in surgery.  Meanwhile, Jennifer and the rest of the family had to continue on to Sweden where they took a ferry back to Turku, arriving the day after my surgery.

My recovery, even according to the U.S. doctor who followed up afterwards, has been nothing short of miraculous.  But then again, we believe in miracles.  I could feel the prayers of the good people of St. John’s, friends, and family!  And the fact that I returned back to work three weeks later (but not quite full speed for a few weeks after) is testament to the healing power of Dr. Jesus, the prayers of the faithful, and a great medical team in Turku, Finland.

And a year later I am still most grateful.  To God be the glory.