3am Phone Call

No call at 3am is good. I have never received a call in the middle of the night from a friend or family member telling me they won the lottery. Even friends who give birth at midnight wait till morning to share their news. The best you can hope for is a wrong number. So when our phone rang just before 3am Monday morning, I took a deep breathe and answered.

It was my mom. My brother, his wife, and their three children had been in a serious car accident. The two people in the car that hit them were killed on impact. Miraculously, all five members of my brother's family had survived the crash. My brother and the three kids were okay. My sister-in-law, Margo, had broken her neck and there was a high probability she'd be paralyzed. "Sorry to call in the middle of the night," my mom said, "But Margo needs your prayers and she needs them now."

We got on our knees with incredible gratitude. "Thank you. Thank you for letting them live," was how we began. Then we poured out our hearts in prayer for Margo's recovery. Not knowing who the other two people were, we also prayed for their families to be comforted as they received the news of their loved ones deaths.

There are lots of medical terms, but the basic info is that two of Margo's vertebra dislocated and should have severed her spinal cord in the process - they did not. It was an absolute miracle. But the miracle needed to be undone with another miracle. The surgeon needed to put the vertebra back without causing any nerve damage. The surgeon had never done this before - never. Margo had two options, paralysis or a miracle.

With God's will and the surgeon's hands, her vertebra were put back in place - what are we up to here, three miracles in less than a day?!!?! Once this was done, it was on to neck surgery to fuse her vertebra together in her neck. They removed a piece of bone from her hip for the procedure. The surgery went better than anyone could have hoped for and the following night Margo walked.

We have since learned about the two people who were killed. It was an elderly couple in their seventies - the man never drove at night or on the freeway. But this particular night, he did. He lost control of his car and began to spin. He crossed the median and hit my brother's car head on. My brother said it happened as fast as a fly hitting the windshield.

While Margo has a long therapy road ahead and a giant neck brace to fashion for the next three months, her recovery prognosis is excellent. She's strong, always has been. She married my brother - she has to be tough.