Griffin Speaks

A BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATERS

Five months ago on December 18, 2003, my brother, Melvin Julius Griffin Jr., a juvenile diabetic passed away at the age of 47. God had broken my mother’s heart. On Tuesday, April 20, 2004 God healed that broken heart with the help of Dr. Paul L Cammack. My mother received a quadruple bypass at Baptist South in Montgomery, Alabama. On April 21, 2004 Dr. John Kirklin died at the age of 86. Dr. Kirklin helped perfect the heart-lung bypass machine at the Mayo Clinic in the 1950s. He also helped build the booming medical community in Birmingham, Alabama. I dedicate this article to his memory. 

It was an ordinary morning when my dad walked out of his front door to go to work at the Alabama Public Service Commission. As he was leaving a neighbor informed him that another neighbor’s mother had passed from a heart attack. He went back inside the house to tell my mother and found my mother grasping for air. He called 911 and saved her life. 

After arriving at the hospital the doctor ordered that a heart catheterization be performed on my mother. A heart catheterization involves passing a catheter (i.e. a very thin flexible tube) through an artery or a vein to the heart, and into a person’s coronary artery. The doctor ordered this because he suspected that there was blockage. He was correct. My mother had four blocked arteries. He told her that if she did not have bypass surgery she would be dead in three weeks. 

We all gathered and comforted my 71 year old mother as she prepared for this amazing surgery. She was very nervous. I was very concerned because just five months earlier we were at the same hospital, praying to the same God for my brother’s recovery and God’s answer was NO! To make matters even more difficult my coworker’s 83 year old mom entered the same hospital the day after my mom entered. My coworker’s mom, a wonderful woman eventually passed from the same thing that my brother passed away from. The waters were very troubling. 

Just before my mother was taken to surgery my 72 year old dad and I went to pray with her. I had never seen my mother so frightened. She looked as though she wished she had never eaten a pig ear, a pigtail, a sausage, or a slice of bacon. She looked as though she wished she had exercised more in her earlier years. She looked as though she wished she had worried less and allowed Jesus to truly carry her burdens. She looked as though she wished God would give her one more chance. When they rolled my mother away I did not know if I would ever see her alive again. I let her go and placed her in God’s unchanging hands. 

My dad, Debra and me waited in the Surgery waiting room. We saw several friends there waiting as their love ones had different surgeries. The room was filled to capacity. All of a sudden my dad burst out in tears and said, "How did Joseph take it?” He was talking about Job. We comforted my dad and waited for the surgeon’s call. In order to comfort the family the surgeons keep you informed about the patient’s well being at each important step in the operation.  

Heart bypass surgery is a way to treat life-threatening heart disease by creating new ways for blood to flow to the heart muscle. If you stop eating pig ears, ham, pork chops and bacon the procedure can improve the quality of your life and even add years to it. Doctors find veins from other parts of the body, usually the leg to reroute the blood around the clogged artery. This restores the blood flow to the heart. The surgery is often called coronary artery bypass grafting (cabbage). This surgery was introduced in the 1960s, and has become one of the most common surgeries performed in the United States. Last year 500,000 of these surgeries were performed. The surgery usually takes between 3 and 6 hours and requires general anesthesia. The heart is stopped and the patient is placed on a heart lung machine. When the surgeon has completed the grafts he restarts the heart. In Montgomery, Alabama there are only three heart surgeons. They are all considered to be at the top of their game. We are certainly grateful to Dr. Cammack! 

My bridge over those troubled waters was my ability to accept that God’s will be done. Simply releasing my fears and worries upon the lord gave me comfort and peace. I simply prayed “God let thy will be done!” Your bridge over troubled waters is when you accept God’s will. When you lean not unto your own understanding, but know that God is in charge you will have that bridge over troubled waters. To paraphrase Aretha Franklin’s hit song, A Bridge Over Troubled Waters: When you’re weary, feelin’ small; when tears are in your eyes, God will dry them all. He’s on your side, Oh when times get rough and friends just can’t be found. God will be your bridge over troubled waters. 

Greg Griffin is a free lance writer. You can read his previous articles by visiting his web page at www.greggriffin.com