The hospital has a term for when a patient has died. It is “RHC” meaning respiration has ceased. We use those initials so no visitors or other patients might hear the words death, died, passed away, etc. We speak in secret code so that as the nurses make notifications from the nurses station they can say RHC and not “so and so died”.
Tonight I’m paged to be with a family for a woman near death. As I arrive on the scene the family is in tears gathered around the bed. Because the patient has some type of infection we wear gowns and plastic gloves. I come in to be with them and the daughter asked for prayer. We join hands with the gloves on and I pray.
Words come hard at times like these. I make a few words, bring some comfort where I can and hug where and when appropriate and just wait silently. The grandson says something about her favorite TV station that she left on all the time at her home. We switch to that station, the daughter next to her tells her it’s on (she is basically not conscious). A few minutes later she gently stops breathing, and she RHC’s!
I don’t know if you’ve ever been with someone at the time of death. It’s a powerful thing. She falls asleep here and wakes up there. She was so quiet and so peaceful. The difficulty in breathing stopped and she relaxed her body.
This Sunday is Holy Trinity Sunday and we celebrate God the creator, Jesus the redeemer, and the Spirit the sustain-er! The family is sustained by the Spirit, thankful for Jesus redeeming their loved one from sin to eternal life.
The love and hug one another and, as death often does, draws them in closer.
Blessings for a good weekend and continue to pray for our team in Denver and for all who will come, not for RHC obviously but for VDC!!!
Peace,
Pastor Doug
Eric is our current Webmaster and works on the NLS Communications Team. Raised in Judaism, he found Christ and the New Testament at age 16 in a Southern Baptist Church. He searched many denominations for the real church, only to find the Holy Spirit is present in all of them. He's worked for One for Israel, a group of native Israeli believers who are sharing the gospel in the holy land in Hebrew and is part of the only Hebrew speaking seminary in Israel.
