She died yesterday.

[Gregory Matthews]

Yesterday, seventeen year-old Sara [Not her real name.] died.

Her life had begun as did most of our. It began in a hospital with a proud Mother and Father. But soon concerns surfaced. Sara did not seem to be developing normally.

Extensive work ups were done, and the news was bad. Sara was not expected to grow, and her life was expected to be very short.

An offer followed this news. An expermental study was being done to see if a treatment would work. No one knew whether it would, and the results of that treatment. Sara's parents agreed to place her in the program, and she began to grow.

Things seemed reasonably bright for Sara, for a few years, and then the news came. Sara was going to reamain disabled. She would continue to grow. But, she would remain intellectually, emotionally, and socially, at about the level of a seven year old!

That is exactly what happened. Her parents entered her in school. Teachers did what they could for her. She developed a life goal: to graduate from High School. A few days ago, she did. Yes, her diploma was not the standard diploma that the other graduates recieved. But, it acknowledged her work, and her that she had spent four years attempting to learn. Sara was happy. She had achieved her life goal.

She was a seven year-old, traped in the body of a seventeen year-old woman. She went home from her graduation to die. For her medical condition had changed. This time the doctors had told her parents that there they could not save her life. All they could do would be to allow her to die a comfortable death.

Her parents had to deal with leading a seven year-old into death. They wondered how to do that. Death is alwqays hard. But in this case, they wondered.

Early in her process of dying, she smiled, one day and said to parents: Jesus came to speak to me today. He told me not to be afraid, that he was going to be with me every step of the way. Then he reminded me that he had died, and knew what it was like.

Shortly before Sara died, she told her partnts (This was the third visit.) that Jesus had come to her again. This time He had told her that she would live with him in eternity, and in that life she would have her relatives and friends.

Yesterday, she died.

Yes, I know the stories that people tell. I personally have heard them, and I know that some of them are not in accord with the Bible. But, I also know that the God I woship loved a 7 year-old trapped in the body of a 17 year-old. I know that that God can speak to her in her time of need to bring her comfort and hope. Just as He could do so for her, so also He can do so for you and I.

[Liz]

That was nice--you should have said you will need a kleenex. Also, what part isn't according to the Bible? Jesus told her she would live with him in eternity--HE didn't say she was going right then.

Now I am off to find the kleenex.

Liz

[Gregory Matthews]

I did not say that anything in her story was against the Bible. I said that the stories of some are against the Bible.

[NormF]

Beautiful, Gregory, simply beautiful. Thank you.

And if you can, please extend our condolences to the family and give them our thanks for allowing you to share this story with us. Liz, save me a couple tissues.

God is good.

Regards,

Norm

[K]

Dear Gregory,

I appreciate you sharing that story. I also think hospital chaplins are one of the many under appreciated employees. I could never do your job, nor would I ever desire to do it.

I am glad God made special people to help patients and their families in those darkest hours.

Sincerely,

K

[Naomi]

Thank you Gregory for sharing "Sara's" story. So sad, but beautiful.

As K said, I could not do your job, but I am thankful for you and other Chaplains who are there for those in need.

God Bless

[Gregory Matthews]

I do not personally know the people involved in this story. I heard it in SS Class yesterday, from the Aunt of Sara.

But it has touched me. I will use is as a sermon illustration.

Your raise a point. I sit on the hospital ethics committee of a major teaching hospital. We literally hold the lives of people in our hands in the decisions that we make. In this area, a refusal to make a decision, is a decision in itself. I.e. We cannot escape our responsibility.

I think that makes good theology. God often places people in positions where He expects them to take a position, and a refusal to take a position, is in itself a decision.

[Gregory Matthews]

Let me tell you a little more about Sara, and the ethical decision that her parents faced 17 years ago.

Seventeen years ago Sara faced a very short life. Her parents faced an experimental course of treatment with the prognoses unknown. They took a position, and Sara recieved the treatment.

That course of treatment gave her 17 years of life. It was a life that has some physical disability, and intellectual, emotional, and scocial fixation at about the age of seven. It was a life of relatively normal physical growth, which would not have had without the medical treatment.

I was a life of probably both pain and happiness for Sara. She set the life goal of graduating from High School, and a few days before her death did participate and recieve a document that attested to her attempts to succeesd.

But, there is one more ethical factor that I have not related to you yet. The medical treatment that Sara was given, which gave her years of the life that she had MAY (?) be responsible for her death last Friday. No one really knows, and her parents are dealing with the issue that their decision may have killed her 17 years later.

In medical ethics we deal with complex issues that are not easily resolved and may have unintended consequences years later. Yet, in my thinking, a refusal to take a position, is a position in itself. We who are in these situations cannot escape making them.