Pioneer Christian Monthly - September, 1989

Miracles Of Modern Medicine
Agnes Lebrie

A man experiences severe crushing pain in the centre of his chest. It's not like anything he has ever experienced before. He has always been very healthy, only had a "little bit" of high blood pressure but nothing that needed to be treated and perhaps he has smoked a little more than he should.

This pain persists for an hour. He begins to sweat profusely, he becomes very nauseated and feels he might be sick. He is beginning to feel frightened and decides that his wife should-take him to the hospital.

On arrival in the Emergency Room he is immediately placed in a bed, given oxygen therapy, and placed on a heart or cardiac monitor. An intravenous infusion is started and an electrocardiogram is done. The results of the man's electrocardiogram are seen immediately and he is told he is having a heart attack. He certainly is not prepared for any news like this.

The specialist in attendance wants to speak to both he and his wife about a new treatment which has become readily available - one which he would like to use. It is a new medication which can be given intravenously but must be given quickly - within four to six hours of the onset of chest pain. The purpose of this medication is to dissolve the blood clot which caused the heart attack, and to keep the amount of damage done to the heart to a minimum.

The man agrees to the treatment, completes it successfully and is discharged home within two weeks of his admission to hospital. He is going home a much wiser man because he has learned how and what to change in his lifestyle to try and prevent anything like this from happening to him again.

This may all sound like a fairy-tale but this in fact is a very realistic situation and one with which I have become so very familiar. It has become so routine and almost an expected part of treatment when specific criteria are met, that those of us in the medical field, working in the Emergency Rooms and Intensive Care Units do not even think twice when this treatment is prescribed. Yet it is only two years ago that this treatment first became available in our hospital. We were all excited, a bit nervous and frightened about using it for the first time and wondered how it would work. After all this was the new miracle drug we could use in the treatment of a heart attack.

Miracles have intrigued man from the beginning of time. We have seen evidence of this in man's fascination with the sun, moon and stars. In the condition of man however, perhaps nothing has elicited such amazement and respect as the victory of healing against apparently incurable diseases. In the battle against sickness, that which appeared miraculous even a few generations ago is now accepted with almost a casualness at times. Think back to when tuberculosis and polio claimed thousands of lives and now it is hardly even heard of any more and when it is, it is curable.

We must remain mindful however of who has allowed medical technology to advance to this point where these miracles of surgery and treatment can take place on a daily basis. I cannot but believe that our Almighty Heavenly Father has allowed us to continue to research, investigate and advance so that these new modern miracle cures are available for common everyday'use for those who have need of them.

Although these miracles do happen, there are still many for whom the cure is not yet available. There are still many lives lost and many loved ones who are left wondering why - feeling the pain and sorrow of death. We must turn these sorrow's into God's hands and He will give us the strength to endure these losses too.

I would like to also remind you of the miraculous hearings of Christ. The miracles of Christ which have been recorded in the New Testament contain an element of completeness which even the medicine of today does not enjoy: perfect sight was restored, the lame became runners, lepers found wholeness, and the insane conquered full reality. To Christ however, was attributed the ultimate power over the human predicament - He raised the dead to life.

We have progressed with leaps and bounds in the advances of modem medicine but the honour and glory must remain with our Heavenly Father.

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