Several years ago, my daughter called me and told me about a young man who had been very seriously injured in an accident. The injury was catastrophic, with a broken neck and significant paralysis. The parents were in shock and did not know what to do. My daughter asked if it was ok for them to call me. They did, while I was in Reno, Nevada at Hot August nights. The son was in UC San Diego and had already had four major neck surgeries. Kaiser was pushing to have him transferred to the Kaiser Rehabilitation division. The parents called me, and I advised them that I had have several employees treated at the Craig Institute in Denver, Colorado. I recommended they try and get their son treated there. They said there was no chance that Kaiser would approve this, and they were being pushed to transfer him from the UCSD system to the Kaiser Rehabilitation system. I explained that this type of decision could only be made by certain extremely high up people at Kaiser, and that, although I am not an attorney, I would help them write a letter to the right person. I looked up the President and CEO of Kaiser and helped them draft a letter of appeal directly to him. I wrote that letter from a friend’s house in Reno, and the mother sent it to Kaiser, under her own name. Incredibly, within a few hours, late on a Friday evening, they got a personal email back from the President and CEO of Kaiser who said he had assigned a team to this case. Within just a few days, their son was transferred to the Craig Institute, at great expense for Kaiser. The Craig institute transformed his life. While he is still a quadriplegic, he has made tremendous progress and is learning to leave a productive and happy life with his disability.

Shortly after the son graduated from Craig and returned home his father called me and said: “thank you. I know if you had not gotten involved, my son would be in a nursing home today.” I was humbled and grateful. Grateful that God had put me in a position to help, and grateful that with what can only be described as divine guidance, I was able to provide the advice and assistance they needed.

This injury took place during a church camp. I told the parents that due to the severity of the injury, they had to at least evaluate the potential for legal liability. I explained that they could not possibly do enough fund raisers to fund the expenses of dealing with this type of catastrophic injury. Since no one was preserving the evidence, I suggested they let me interview someone who was a witness to the event, so that this could be documented. One of the other students at the camp agreed to be interviewed, so I interviewed him, with his father present, and recorded the interview. I knew at the time that this interview was worth millions of dollars. This was long before they had retained legal counsel. I then recommended they hire an attorney, since the cost was so high this was the responsible thing to do. They later hired an attorney I recommended, an attorney I knew because she had retained me as an expert witness on another case.

This attorney bravely took on this case and managed it brilliantly. Tonight, I just learned that this case was settled, and their son has now the resources necessary to fund all his future medical care and to take care of him for the rest of his life. This is truly a miraculous and life changing result.

I am mostly in awe of the circumstances that put this family in touch with me at a time when they did not know what to do. I am grateful for the years of experience, overseeing numerous lawsuits and being responsible for purchasing the health insurance for tens of thousands of people. It was that experience that enabled me to understand the situation and to offer the advice necessary to make this all happen. I am in awe of the fact that they trusted me with the future of their most asset, their irreplaceable son. I am humbled that God put me in the right place at the right time to help them when they needed it most. I am grateful and impressed by the President and CEO of Kaiser, who read that email on a Friday evening and immediately took action only he could have authorized. I am grateful for all the people at Kaiser who put the needs of this young man first and did the right thing for the right reason. I am grateful for the local news crews who reported on this story and helped provide additional incentive to make the difficult and financial decision by Kaiser to send this young man to the Craig Institute. I am grateful for the tremendous staff at Craig institute that changed this young man’s life forever. I am a grateful for an attorney, who took on a difficult case at great personal risk because she believed in this young man. I am grateful for that witness who provided the information necessary to document exactly what had happened, and which made the foundation for a successful resolution.

Most of all I am grateful to God, who gave me the opportunity to gain the experience necessary to manage this. I am also grateful that he gave me the wisdom to give the right advise and he put the parents in a position to listen. I am not writing this to brag about my involvement, which is irrelevant to me. I am too filled with joy that God works in mysterious ways his wonders to perform and sometimes he even allows someone as imperfect as me to accomplish remarkable things. It is often that way. Never underestimate how God can use you, in the right circumstances, if you are only willing to pray and listen.

I believe. So should you.

TDM