Prayers For Mom

 

Chaplain José Garcia

Kennewick General Hospital 
Individual Spiritual Companioning

 

It was early on a Tuesday morning when I received a call from the clerk in the emergency room. “Chaplain, please come down,” I heard her say, “we need your help.” I came down and soon afterwards I heard the ambulance’s siren wailing, as it was pulling into the emergency area entrance, bringing in the patient who was immediately wheeled into the emergency room.

 

After speaking with the paramedics to ascertain the patient’s medical status and identity, I then went to make the necessary arrangements for receiving the family when they arrived at the emergency room.  The patient’s medical situation was not good, she was young but had been unconscious and bleeding for a long time.  The emergency room doctor feared that she might have suffered irreversible brain damage.  Her body was not reacting appropriately to the staff’s stimuli or to the medicine being administered to her.

 

The family came in.  There was the patient’s mother, father, uncle and three young children. The boys were aged 11, 13 and 14.  After the doctor spent some time with the patient he came to speak with the family members minus the children.  I took the boys to the nurses lounge and gave them some chips and drinks.  As the boys ate and drank, I asked them, “if you were to pray for your mom right now what would you say to God?”  One of them said, I would pray …”God, please don’t let my mom die, we need her.”   The next boy said, “I’m afraid God, I’m afraid mom is going to die and I will be all alone. So, please God don’t let mamma die.”  The last child just looked at me and said, “I need my mommy.”

My prayer at that point became, “Oh God, listen to the cry of your people.”   We went back to join the rest of the family. The family then told the boys that their mother was very sick and that she may not live through the day.

 

The patient was taken upstairs to the Intensive Care Unit while there the boys were able to visit briefly with their mother. As they came in and saw her condition, they began to cry out loud from what seemed to be the depth of their souls and each of them said to their mom, “please don’t die we need you mom.” 

Once again we prayed together and my prayer was still, “Oh God, listen to the cry of your people.”

 

To the surprise of the doctors and the nurses, but not to her children, the patient opened her eyes and spoke with her family the very next day. 

 

Amen.