Do You Have a Second Chance?
So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.
Psalm 90:3 (ESV)
This was not my vehicle, but it is similar to what my small pickup looked like after I flipped it once.
I was around 18, in a hurry, and driving too fast. I dropped something and reached for it, and when I looked up, I was heading into the ditch. There was nothing I could do to stop in time, but I slammed on the brakes anyway. I closed my eyes and braced myself. After the crash, I opened my eyes but my mind was in a fog. I reached for my seat belt, managed to get the door open, and stepped out of the ditch. When I turned around and looked at my pickup, it was only then I realized my pickup was upside down.
Later as my father and I were watching the tow truck operator work, my dad turned to me and said, “You’ve been given a second chance. Use it wisely.”
I’d like to think I’ve followed his advice.
I am now a paramedic working in an ER, and very often I see other people who have been “given a second chance”. One of the most incredible such ER scenes I’ve ever witnessed happened while performing CPR on a young man who had gone into cardiac arrest at home.
He was not alone, so his arrest was witnessed and (I presume) CPR was started. The paramedics got him back en route, and when they arrived our team was ready to go. We got him on the bed and connected to a heart monitor, and were preparing to get an EKG when the doctor said “We’ve got v-tach. Prepare to shock!”
The patient turned and said “Oh, no!” then jumped as the shock was delivered. “Ow!” he said. “What was that?!”
“Sorry buddy, your heart is acting up; we had to do that.”
“That sucked.”
Unfortunately within a couple of minutes it was necessary to do this again, with the same protests from the patient. He then turned and said “Wha…” and collapsed.
The monitor began sounding loudly. The patient had no pulse. I was at the bedside ready to go, so I began CPR. As I performed chest compressions, he suddenly sat strait up in bed. “What’s going on?” he blurted. We had just enough time for the monitor to register his heartbeat had returned when he collapsed again. No pulse. I jumped back on CPR, and he sat up again!
This happened two more times before the attending physician decided for his own safety he should be sedated and put on a ventilator. This was quickly accomplished and the patient was sent to ICU, alive and with every reason to fully recover.
These two stories prove while second chances may not be common, they do happen. Have you ever had a second chance? What did you do with it? Are you using it wisely?
The worst thing you can do with a second chance is waste it.
So don’t. Kiss your husband or wife. Play with your kids. Call your grandma. Work hard. Make a difference in others’ lives. Be a blessing.
Make sure you will be missed when your second chance is complete.
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If you are a medical professional and would like to write about life lessons learned in the ER from a Christian perspective, I’d love to host your stories in One Christians ER. Please email me at davidjfleming17@gmail.com to become a writer.
