Sharing the Savior’s Story

Tragic Irony

It was quite some time ago that a 1 A.M. phone call was made to the bedroom of Dr. Leo Winter. The respected Chicago surgeon was quickly awake. "A young boy, severely hurt in an accident," said the voice on the other end of the line. A few additional questions determined he had to go. His hands might be able to save the boy. Dr. Winter got out of bed, quickly dressed, and was soon plotting his route to the hospital. Time was short, so he decided to risk taking a shortcut, a shortcut that had him driving through one of the meaner areas of town.

He almost made it, too. But at a red light his door was jerked open by a man wearing a gray hat and a worn flannel shirt. "Give me your car!" the man demanded, dragging Winter from his seat. Winter tried to explain. His words were drowned out by the roar of the engine tearing down the street. The doctor wandered for close to an hour, looking for a phone. It was longer still before a taxi got him to the hospital. At the nurse's station he was told the boy had died 30 minutes earlier. Indeed, the lad's own father had just managed to get there before the death.

The nurse suggested the good doctor might want to see the father. She added, "He's awfully confused. He doesn’t understand why you didn't come." The doctor went down the hall to make the visit no doctor ever wants to make. Entering the dimly lit chapel, he went to the only person there, a dejected, weeping man. He went to the man, still dressed in the same gray hat and old flannel shirt he had worn when he had pushed the life-saving doctor from his car.

Excerpt from The Lutheran Hour broadcast of: February 16, 2003