A year and two days ago on September 26, 2018, my life was changed forever.
Little did I know when I woke up that morning that something so crazy would happen that it would shake up my life entirely. At roughly 2:35 we were running back from an outdoor gym class, and then we came to the final stretch. It was just one long stretch of sidewalk between me and The Door. Out of the corner of my eye, I see this person start to sprint for the door, and me, being naturally pretty competitive, decided to race the person and try and beat them to the door. I thought the person just wanted to race to the area around which the door was located, but as we reached said area,I saw the person go for the door. I did not want to be beaten, so I reached for the door and I was still going at a pretty fast pace. There were double pane glass windows in that door,
I thought my hand would not go through, and sure enough, I was very, very wrong.
My right hand went straight through the glass.
When I pulled out my hand, there was this gaping hole in my wrist, I could see stuff hanging out, and I saw this white thing that was cut in half which turned out to be a tendon. I was bleeding really badly, and my hand was going numb fast. To give you an idea of how much I bled, in the first picture with the door, you’ll see four cement squares. I legitimately covered every inch of those four squares with blood, and I still have some blood on the pair of shoes I was wearing at that time. At this point, the main thoughts going through my mind were,
“What is happening right now,” and, “I really messed up.”
Thankfully, it was about pick up time for school, and there was a mom at the front of the line who happened to know a nurse that lived close by, and once she came over to me, she called her friend. I can’t remember exactly how, but at some point a lot of gauze pads showed up, which proved to be helpful with the bleeding. The head of school came out of the building to help me, as well as this other kind gentleman that was working at the church at that time (my old school rents space from the church I attend). The man was wearing a thick belt which he used to make a makeshift tourniquet for my arm to try and slow the bleeding. At this point, I was sitting on the ground near the door with the four people surrounding me.
A second thought I was having was, “So this is how I go out? Pretty lame ending.”
Another person associated with the church came out and prayed for me. Soon after, the EMTs arrived, they put a real tourniquet on and took me to the hospital. Due to various delays, I went into a 5 hour long surgery at 10:30 p.m. . I woke up at 4:30 a.m., and left the hospital a day later on September 28, 2018. The diagnosis I received from the surgeon was that I had severed my ulnar artery, my flexor tendons, and my median and ulnar nerves . The first couple days after the incident were hard, because I am right hand dominant, so I had to use my left hand for a lot of things including writing.
Over the past year I’ve thought a lot about why God would allow this to happen to me, and I’ve come to a few conclusions.
First, God allowed this terrible thing to happen to me because He knew I could handle it.
Second, I believe God allowed it to happen, because he wanted to show me that He cares about me, and is looking out for me.
I also believe that He does the same for everyone else. To close it up, I want to talk about a song that has stuck with me and encouraged me. The song is called “Scars” by I Am They. This song was sent to my mom from one of her friends in hope that I would hear it, and I’m glad I heard it. The main part goes, “ So I'm thankful for the scars
'Cause without them I wouldn't know Your heart
And I know they'll always tell of who You are
So forever I am thankful for the scars.”
Not only is my scar a good reminder of what God has done and is doing in my life, but it is in the shape of a cross, so I’ll always remember the reason that I am alive today. I firmly believe that if God was not real, and if He was not looking out for me, I would be dead. Only by His grace were the people there to help me, and only by His mercy am I alive. So far, pretty much everything is healed, and the only things I’m waiting for are the nerves to regrow and flexibility to come back. I can’t wait to see what God has in store for me this next year and what other truths He’ll reveal to me.
George after his operation last September
George this September almost totally healed and playing football at Wheaton Academy as a freshman!
To God be the glory for the great things He hath done!
