Imagine you are driving along a road at 80kph (50mph). Think about how quickly things pass you, maybe your window is down and you can feel the velocity of the wind coming through.
Now imagine a cyclist rides straight out in front of you and you have no time to react, swerve, or slow down…and you hit the cyclist. That’s exactly what happened to Pr Nick, except he was the cyclist.
In this episode, I talk to Pr Nick and Brenda, who recall what happened, his horrific injuries and the amazing things God did. A powerful story.
PHOTOS
BOOKS MENTIONED
https://www.amazon.com.au/Rich-Dads-CASHFLOW-Quadrant-Financial/dp/1612680054
https://www.amazon.com.au/Rich-Dad-Poor-Teach-Middle/dp/1612681131
OTHER INTERVIEWS MENTIONED
https://revivalontheairtoday.com/e/10-ewen-and-christine-share-their-story-of-ewens-cancer-journey/
https://revivalontheairtoday.com/e/11-pastor-godfrey-from-png-part-1/
https://revivalontheairtoday.com/e/ben/
SCRIPTURE MENTIONED
https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Philippians-4-7/
“And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
GOD CAN HEAL YOU TOO!
Contact us via podcast@revivalontheairtoday.com or social media, wherever you are in the world (we’re on Instagram and Facebook, search for “Revival On The Air Today”).
Until next time, God bless.
For more wonderful stories of miracles that have happened to people just like you, head to revivalontheairtoday.com.
SATURDAY 11 MARCH 2023 AS WRITTEN BY NICK
On Saturday 11 March this year, while on my regular morning bike ride, which I had been doing for several years, I was hit side on by a van travelling at about 80kph while crossing through a large, busy, multi lane intersection on the pedestrian crossing close to my home. Brenda, my wife, was unaware of what had happened, as she had started her bike ride 15 or 20 minutes before me and was by then at home.
Witnesses saw me punted 5-6 metres into the middle lane. Fortunately, all of the cars around me were able to stop before running over me as I lay on the road. Three people, including the driver of the van, ran to my aid and commenced CPR, as they all thought I was dead. Thankfully I wasn’t. Very soon after, the police and two ambulances arrived and not surprisingly assessed my condition as very serious.
The Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) which you may have heard mentioned on TV shows like Ambulance is a tool used by the medical profession to determine the extent of consciousness in trauma patients. It assesses patients according to three aspects of responsiveness: eye opening, motor and verbal responses. The highest GCS score is 15 and the lowest is 3. A score of 15 means you’re fully awake, responsive and have no problems with thinking or memory. A score of 8 or below means that you’re in a coma and likely have a severe head injury. A score less than GCS5 is associated with an 80% chance of being in a lasting vegetative state or death. I was assessed as a GCS4 and taken to Canberra Hospital which is the major trauma hospital in our region.
Of course, as I was unconscious, I was completely unaware of any of this. Brenda, meanwhile, realised that something must have had happened to me since I hadn’t come home at the expected time. She rang my mobile, which surprisingly and luckily, I didn’t normally take with me. To her surprise it was answered by one of the hospital staff who told her I had been in a serious accident and was now in Accident and Emergency. She was flabbergasted and immediately rang the rest of the family who arranged a lift for her to the hospital. She and one of my sons-in-law had prayer on the way. Meanwhile our other children rang around seeking prayer from the saints, with the first request sent out around 10:30am that morning. When the family gathered at the hospital, they all had more prayer for me which was a great comfort to them all.
On my arrival at hospital, I was given 3 units of blood as my left femur had been fractured. I found out later that even with a closed fracture there can be significant internal bleeding as it was in my case around 1 – 1.5 litres of blood, within a very short time. I was then transferred to the Intensive Care Unit where I spent almost a week. Various scans, x-rays and an MRI determined that in addition to the broken femur, I had sustained:
- Severe brain damage with three bleeds on the brain
- Right frontal lobe contusion
- Fractured skull/neck
- Significant chest trauma with 9 broken ribs with multiple fractures
- Punctured lung
- Broken left collarbone
- Broken left shoulder blade. So, a bit of a mess!
Later, doctors discovered I also had a large blood clot in my left arm stretching from my wrist to my shoulder, as well as a broken right thumb which was completely missed and which I didn’t find out about until after I left hospital. Later an Xray determined that it had healed in place so I was grateful that that was the case. Some weeks after leaving hospital, I was told by one of my specialists that I should have a baseline ultrasound to ascertain the state of my blood clot. The specialist expected me to be on blood thinners until the end of the year, but she also said that I could have it for life. The ultrasound found no blood clot present despite two radiographers searching for it. This meant that I was able to stop taking the blood thinners and strong opioid pain medication I was on, which was a huge blessing and a direct answer to prayer.
Amazingly, and maybe it is a blessing, I have no memory of the first few weeks in hospital nor the accident as I was in and out of consciousness and my short-term memory was very poor. Doctors were very concerned about this, and scheduled numerous memory exercises for me to do each day once I was on the ward. I even had student nurse “minders” assigned to me 24 hours a day by my bedside to ensure that I didn’t try to remove my collar which supported my neck during recovery since I kept forgetting that my neck had been broken and tried to remove my collar which I found very uncomfortable!
Throughout this time, Brenda found enormous strength and comfort from the Lord, together with wonderful prayerful and practical support with meals and other help from our Spirit filled fellowship family. She just had this wonderful peace that the Lord was looking after me and she wasn’t worried or stressed. It was overwhelming and very humbling. Pastor Godfrey from PNG even rang me (which I don’t’ remember either) while I was in hospital and prayed for me over the phone since the message about my accident had travelled throughout our fellowship around the world and I really appreciated everyone’s wonderful, prayerful support. Apparently, I even interacted with him and participated in the prayer praying in tongues, though I don’t remember it!
I spent almost a week in ICU and just under 7 weeks in hospital, and I can’t tell you how glad I was to walk out of there after all that time! It was pure bliss even though they really did look after me so well while I was in there. Frankly, I couldn’t wait to get home to Brenda’s home cooking!
Although we knew that I had been seriously injured, it wasn’t until after I left hospital and read my discharge report and spoke to various health professionals, that I realised just how close to death or permanent disability I had come. Every doctor who has seen my report has expressed shock at the extent of my injuries and amazement at how well I have recovered in such a short time. One of our friends is a retired Critical Care nurse who told us that my recovery is a miracle and that I am, what her colleagues refer to as, a 1%er. That is, those fortunate ones that recover and are able to lead normal lives. PTL !
Brenda recalls that on my very first day in ICU, the manager had asked her for a copy of my Power of Attorney and whether I had an Advanced Care Directive. Such was the expectation that I might not survive or would end up severely disabled. When she took them in a few days later, the manager said that they no longer needed them because I had improved so much and was no longer in danger of dying. What a blessing that was!
I praise the Lord that while I am still having weekly physiotherapy sessions and various doctor’s check-ups, I am well enough to play 18 holes of golf each week as well as do most other things that I was able to do before the accident. My bones are well on the way to being healed and I am getting better each day. PTL!
We are so grateful to the Lord for His kindness and protection and His grace and mercy in healing me. I guess I am a walking miracle thanks to the Lord in my life! What an awesome God we have.
AS WRITTEN BY NICK ALLAN
(c) 2023 The Revival Fellowship