When Helping Literally Hurt

By David Martin, Director of Spiritual Care – Tarrant County

Pulling a double shift at the hospital was not a habit that a particular nurse, who I will call Wendi, wanted to develop. But she valued the comp time. As she headed out to the parking garage, Wendi heard the screams of a female. What she saw sent a jolt through her body. Two young men were beating a grey headed woman. Wendi did not hesitate, not even for a moment, yelling at the two perpetrators, “The police are on their way!”

Later, in the hospital room, she admitted that this wasn’t the best idea because her yelling turned the attackers’ attention to her. They pursued her, and the ensuing assault ended with a stab wound, a split jaw, and a fracture to her fourth and fifth vertebrae.

Fortunately for Wendi, another person had witnessed the crime and called the police. And though her life ebbed on the concrete floor of that parking garage, the emergency room was only steps away. Wendi survived the attack, but lives in constant pain, every day clinging to life for the three grandkids whom she adores.

The physical scars are frightening reminders of what she endured. But the emotional and mental scars provoke deep-seeded fear. Wendi lives in fear that her attackers will someday be released, and she will be forced to revisit the horrors of the crime. Wendi’s story reveals that violence does its work on the mind as well as the body.

As a chaplain, I believe that if a patient’s spiritual resources can be identified and brought to bear, healing can begin. As I listened to this woman’s story for twenty minutes in jaw-dropping silence, I wondered.

I drew a deep breath and felt my body relax. I could not undo history, nor could I heal the deep psychological scars from such a horrific assault.

However, I could listen and offer to pray. How does one describe the holiness of Wendi’s tears as I prayed, or of her hand trembling in mine? Such moments can only be experienced when the Great Physician is invoked.

The power of that experience is sacred ground. It is a place where the human and divine intersect. It is a space where healing can begin.

In this work of Lifeline Chaplaincy, our chaplains and pastoral care volunteers bring the healing of Christ to the broken body and wounded spirit. In the process, we see slivers of God’s healing work, and it changes us…for the better. It’ll change you, too.

As 2 Corinthians 1:5 tells us, “For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort, too.”