Nurse Nate on How God Answers Prayer

While hospitalized, John experienced an unexpected radical reaction to an opioid administered for pain control prior to a bone marrow biopsy.

He suffered in agony through seizure-like episodes
that occurred every few hours
lasting for about twenty minutes
twisting first his head and neck
then violently thrashing his arms and legs
involving nearly every muscle in his body
leaving him utterly exhausted.

Each time he had to be physically kept from harm, and emotionally encouraged. 

On admittance, a nurse named Nate had been assigned to care for John. Nate’s routine schedule was to work 12 hour shifts, four days in a row. He reminded us of our grandson Nate with his curly hair, his contagious good will, his easy smile, and his calming, assuring presence.

He told us he had started med school but then opted for nursing instead giving him more direct contact with the patients. We soon knew he had made the right choice.

I had stayed with John from the first seizure and all those following that refused to leave. We prayed for pain relief, recovery, and the medical staff.

Our five children, their spouses, and our grandchildren came from near and far places, at all hours of night and day, and were privileged to become acquainted with Nate.

Nate mentioned a java house where he worked on his off-hospital hours so our coffee-loving daughters checked it out one night and surprised and delighted Nate the next day by wearing its logo tees that they obtained right off the backs of his fellow baristas. We all, and he, had won each other’s hearts in ways well beyond his professional care of John.

On his final 12-hour assignment to our room (yes, it had become my home away from home, too), Nate pulled up a chair and told our family about his wife’s prayer. He said he had been questioning his role in life and that on the morning he would be assigned to John, his wife had prayed for God to put someone in his path to somehow restore his soul, that even if walking through the valley of the shadow of death they would be comforted and filled with God’s goodness and mercy. 

John eventually returned home from that hospital and we pray that Nate is still there.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow!