Baruch Hashem! I am fine! But I did have to spend most of Shabbos in a hospital emergency room. My left leg was swollen, and I was told by my doctor to go to the emergency room that it could be a blood clot. It was, but not the deep vein type that is so dangerous. It was in a blood vessel, and is not of major concern. The person who did the Doppler (really a type of sonogram) was Jewish (not yet observant). When we saw the blood clot on the screen, I immediately thought of the Asher Yotzar blessing. For some reason I had the most amazing desire to say it, but I did not. Instead I asked the man if he had every heard of the Asher Yotzar blessing, and as expected, he said 'no'. I then told him the English translation and explained that we say this each time we go to the bathroom, and that the blood vessel we were looking at was one of the 'openings and cavities" that it refers to, and if "one were to become blocked" we could not survive. Even though I know that conventional wisdom would say that I was not supposed to be happy about seeing the clot, I could not help but feel overjoyed because that little clot was testimony to the truth of this brocha. (I am not so sure I would have felt this way if it turned out to be a deep vein thrombosis – the more deadly type!) His eyes lit up like lamps and I was amazed by the size of his smile! Apparently something about this brocha hit home for him. Just a little seed planted, but it was wonderful to see.
The doctor gave me a shot of blood thinner, told me what to do, and released me. But I could not walk home from the hospital (it is much too far a walk – a gentile drove me there but I could not justify being driven back) so I went back to the emergency room and sat down in the waiting area until Shabbos was over. As I sat there, I thought about how everything Hashem does, he does for a reason. So I wondered if I would ever know why Hashem wanted me to spend Shabbos in an emergency room. (Shabbos in NJ was not going ot be over until 9:18 PM)
While I was there, a teen aged boy walked in with his parents. There did not seem to be anything obviously wrong with him, he just looked very sad. When his parents walked away (so that they could sign him in), tears rolled down his face. I asked Hashem that if there was any way for me to help him, please make it known to me. The boy was taken in, and his mother came back out. I asked her how her son was doing and if he would be OK.
She turned towards me, her eyes brimming with tears. She explained to me what was wrong, and how this was not his first time in the emergency room. She told me about his illness, how he got it, and the type of treatment he was given, all without any success.
As it turned out, an old doctor friend of mine once told me about the boy's illness, and described the treatment that the boy had been given and explained to me why it did not work on a lot of patients. He then told me the type of treatment that he gave for the same illness and why it worked. I told the mother exactly what he told me. Her eyes lit up and she began to cry. She took his name and told me that she is a very devout Catholic and believes that G-d must have sent me to her. She had been praying for so long for G-d to send her an answer.
She then asked me why I was in the waiting room for so long. (I could sense her concern - were they also going to have to wait as long as I had?) I told her that I was also religious, and that I was Jewish, and went on to explain why I was still there. She burst into tears, and then, with a glowing face and huge smile, she said that now she knows for sure that G-d sent me to her. We hugged and I thanked Hashem for letting me be privy to (at least part) of the reason why he had me there that day.
Important Numbers
