Surgical Spirit: Hangman’s Fracture

Ruth Eardley is a GP and member of Affinity partner Little Hill Church, Leicester. She writes a regular piece for her church entitled ‘Surgical Spirit’. We have been given permission to reproduce them. This is her latest contribution:

Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that” (James 4:13-15).

When we have medical students at the practice, I introduce them to my star patient, a very elderly lady who delights them with an amazing story.     

One chilly autumn she was a guest at a country wedding. As she was taking photos outside the ancient church, she stumbled and fell backwards, narrowly missing a gravestone. She felt a bit bruised for a few days, “especially my ribs” (she throws this in to put the students off the scent) but thought no more of it. Some weeks later, on Christmas Day, carrying presents downstairs, she tripped, fell and this time she hurt her neck. A CT scan revealed no new fracture – but an old one, presumably from the earlier fall, that had not united and was still unstable. Furthermore, it was a “hangman’s fracture” (in a stage whisper) which, as the name suggests, is commonly fatal. “And there was I”, she says, “merrily pottering about and only a whisker from eternity.”

The story ends happily with surgery to fuse the cervical vertebrae: “So now I have bolts in my neck!” And the students are suitably impressed.

I never tire of interesting medical histories and this one is special. It always reminds me of the frailty of human life.

The verses above are from the epistle of James and in this section he is talking about arrogance. He earlier quotes Proverbs 3:34 – “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6). Our text says that it is wrong to assume that we alone dictate the happenings in our lives, ignoring God’s sovereignty, power and minute-by-minute sustaining grace. James is not saying that it is wrong to make plans; he is saying that it is wrong to pretend that we are our own masters and have total control over future events. After all, what is our life? We are a mist, a vapour, an insubstantial cloud of tiny water droplets that may dissipate with the rising sun. We are all just “a whisker from eternity”.

For further thought:

• Let us humble ourselves before the Lord, knowing that he will lift us up (James 4:10).
• Let us acknowledge him in all our ways (Proverbs 3:6). He will direct our paths.
• Let us say, when making plans (in our hearts, if not audibly), “If it is the Lord’s will, I will live and do this or that” (James 4:15).