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The Demon-Possessed Woman and The Kindly Deacon
by Bruce Monson
| It was a Sunday around 10 a.m. when our engine company was dispatched to a possible seizure at a Baptist church in our response district. We arrived to find several frantic people in the church lobby crowded around the patient -- a woman in her 40's with a history of epilepsy and diabetes. Her skin color was blue (cyanosis, meaning she wasn't breathing well) and she was still actively seizing, and much to my amazement there were two people on each side of her physically holding her upright in a chair as she convulsed (not recommended)! I soon learned that she had actually started seizing about ten minutes before this during the church services (which were still in progress even now) and that they had carried her out into the lobby while she was still seizing . . . hey, the sermon must go on! |
Our first action was to lay her down on the floor and assist her breathing with oxygen and a bag-valve mask. A lot of other things were being done simultaneously such as airway suctioning, IV's, checking glucose levels (she's diabetic so she may require sugar), and getting med orders for Valium (to stop the convulsions). No sooner had I drawn the proper dose of Valium into the syringe and was preparing to inject it into the IV when a man walked up to us and identified himself as "a church deacon," after which he said, and I quote: |
"Excuse me, but services are about to conclude and I need to clear this area so people can exit. Can you move her [the patient] somewhere else?" |
For a moment I just looked at him in stunned silence, not really believing what I had just heard. I looked him in the eyes and he just glared back with a smug expression, almost as if to say "Well, are you going to move her or not?" Naturally this angered me and there was plenty I wanted to say, but I had much more serious issues to attend to and only had time to respond with, "I think this [situation] is a little more important, don't you? The people can wait!" |
Fortunately, once I gave the medication the seizure broke and the patient ultimately recovered. Well, perhaps our actions and the medication were of no use after all and Jesus simply chose this precise moment to answer the "healing prayers" from the congregation, thus exorcising the offending "demon." (Mark 5:11-13; Matthew 17:14-18) Yeah, right! |
In any event, it's neither the favorable outcome of the patient in this case, nor the finer points of "demon possession" that are the issue here. The issue is the incredible insensitivity displayed by this deacon, and how his Christian beliefs apparently did not inspire him to any sort of special "Christian compassion" for another person in need. It is certainly not my intent here to berate this man for his egregious behavior, but rather to make it known that no matter where you go in the world you are going to find some people who are compassionate and sensitive to the needs of others, and other people who are not; and what religion they happen to profess, if any at all, makes no difference whatsoever. |
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