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Editor-in-Chief Reports on His Recent Illness
his is the first time 1 have had
pportunity to w rite you in q uite sorne
me. As you probably know, I have been
very ill with wha t the doctor has termed " heart
fa il ure ."
At the beginning of this illness, in my home
in Tucson, Arizona, my heart had comple te ly
sto pped and 1 had stopped breathing.
For tunately, a nurse which I had in my home to
help and to watch over me-because I had
absolutely refused to go toa hospita l–
discovering tha t my face was ashen wh ite, went
to work immedia tely a long with my wife's sister
on mou th-to-mouth resuscita tion. Using steady,
repeated pressure on my chest, a fte r sorne thir ty
seconds they brought me back, bu t, as the nurse
has said since, it was " touch and go" for sorn e
little time before 1 began to brea th na turally.
T he Scriptures reveal our phys ica l life
consists of the circula tion of blood through the
body and our breathing. Our brea th is ca lled
the " breath of life," and the Bible a lso says " the
lifeof the fl esh is in the blood." Although no
doctorwouldhave pronounced me legal!y dead
unt il la ter, from the biblical point ofv iew I was
absolutely dead.
1
knew absolute ly noth ing; 1
didn't have ha lluci na tionsofgoi ng to heaven or
hell or anythingofth e kind.
T
have often been
in tri gued by readingaccounts ofpeople who have
apparent ly been dead foreven a few minutes and
brought back to life . Most ofthe ir repor ts confirm
wha t the Biblesays: "The dead know no t
anythi ng." And I'm su re that tha t is true.
The
PLAIN TRUTH February 1978
Since that close brush with death, 1 have had
long hours to think and to co ntempla te. 1 have
oft en thought tha t if 1 only had myself to
consider- if my own prívate personal interests
were a ll tha t there was to my life - I might have
welcomed dea th , had they not discove red my
condition and revived me. But when 1 think of
the grea t commission which God has given me,
and which is probably not yet comple ted, I
know that God brought my life back for a very
great purpose.
It
is going to take me at least a few mon ths
before 1 can get back to work with full dynamic
energy. My recovery,
1
know, depends entirely
upon my " taking it easy" and making sure
1
don' t overdo it during this period of
conva lescence. However, 1 am very happy to
report to you tha t I have made great progress so
fa r and my heartbeat is now strong and regula r.
1 have wri tten you a number o f times of how
J
was expend ing the dynamic energy of a man
only half my age and , as a ma tter of fact, 1 was
pro bably expending more than
1
should have. 1
lite rally worked myself into a stoppage of the
heart. 1certainly will be more care fu l to protect
against that sort of thing in the futu re.
r
was told a t the beginn ing of my recovery
tha t it would be many mon ths before 1 could
expect to be back on the job and as strong as
befo re. l t is now just over four months since my
ill ness struck.
1
am making except ional progress
and expect to be comp letely recovered much
sooner than anticipated.
o