By Austin Lewter
You have read about the rough start with our son Jackson
You read about our mantra inspired by 1st Thessalonians and how our son defied the odds.
I told you we were blessed with a wonderful surgeon and said he was a subject for another column.
Well, here you go.
Jackson was 17 days old and suddenly very sick. His premature birth was caused by injuries my wife, Jennifer, sustained in a car accident.
A touch-and-go prognosis culminated with him contracting a bowel infection on the 17th day of his life.
We had gone home for the day, having no idea the infection was eminent. It came on suddenly and moved fast.
The second phone call from the nurse that afternoon went something like, “Mr. Lewter, the surgeon has been called and is on his way, but I need to tell you that I don’t think you son will survive.”
We were ten-minutes away from the hospital when that call came though.
Upon arrival at Jackson’s NICU room, we met Dr. John LaNoue, Jr..
He was the man on-call that afternoon.
He introduced himself and explained what necrotizing enterocolitis really is.
Abbreviated “NEC,” it attacks the gut and quickly works its way though the bowel.
It happens with preemies. No one really knows why and the success rate is not great.
Jackson was laying in his isolate and was white as a sheet. His three pound body was sick— very sick.
Dr. LaNoue said, “I am not going to lie. This appears to be an advanced case. I will not know what is possible until I take a look inside. I can’t promise anything but I promise I will do all I can.”
The hospital chaplain had already left for the night so the charge nurse baptized Jackson, at our request, right there in his hospital bed.
LaNoue opened him up right there in the same bed. He was too unstable to move to an operating room.
One of the nurses told us, “You have the best. John LaNoue is the best pediatric general surgeon in Dallas. I wouldn’t want anyone else operating, were it my own child.”
We had no idea, at the time, just how right she was.
I am not sure how long the surgery took. I know it was long enough for me to have a one-on-one with God and for our family to start showing up.
It seemed like an eternity.
When he was satisfied, Dr. LaNoue came to talk to us in the private room at the end of the NICU hallway.
“There was a lot of infected bowel,” he said. “I removed what was dead. It was quite a bit and I suspect he’ll have short bowel syndrome for the rest of his life. We have isolated some damaged bowel and I think we can get it to heal. If it works, it will be a long process, but there is hope. We are not out of the woods yet. In fact, we are just entering the woods, but the good news is that we are still undertaking the journey. We are still here and moving forward.”
We didn’t know, at the time, that Jackson would have a total of 12 more surgeries— seven more of which would be performed by Dr. LaNoue.
We had no idea that he wouldn’t eat any food my mouth until after his second birthday.
We had no idea that we would have to later fire doctors who weren’t on our same page.
At the time, all we knew, was Jackson was alive and we had Dr. John LaNoue to thank.
Though, we found out later, he would never take the credit.
We soon discovered that Dr. John LaNoue, Jr. is a man of faith.
Someone told us he as an ordained Baptist minister.
I am not sure if he is officially ordained or not. If he’s not, he should be.
When he’s not saving young lives at Dallas area hospitals, he volunteers with the Texas Baptist Men Disaster Relief ministry and hosts Bible studies in his home.
Learning this was all very comforting.
A nurse later said, “Most any other surgeon would have taken one look at Jackson and said, ‘There is nothing we can do,’ and then not even tried. He was that sick. LaNoue was willing to try.”
This willingness to try, I believe, is rooted in his faith. Believing in a higher power is key.
I believe Dr. LaNoue was willing to try because he knew Jackson’s success was not just dependent on him as a surgeon. Believing in something beyond ourselves means being willing to take a chance— trusting in the something bigger than us.
LaNoue wasn’t going to write him off as a terminal case. He knew that wasn’t his decision.
With the healing power of Jesus, all things are possible.
He was willing to buy into that and give it a go.
But, as I said before, he would never take the credit.
Some months later, Dr. LaNoue emerged from what must have been his sixth or seventh surgery with Jackson.
Contrary to a previous operation some weeks prior, this one went well.
Prayers had been answered and problems resolved.
We were emotional. We thanked him emotionally.
Jennifer hugged him. She was crying. I saw Dr. LaNoue choke back a tear.
She said, “Thank you. You saved his life. You saved him, again. All I can say is thank you. You did it.”
He politely replied, “I am glad it went well but I didn’t do any work here. I am just the hands through which the world occurs.”
Proverbs 22:29 says, “Do you see a man skillful in his work? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men.”
Blessed is the skillful man who glorifies God with his skills.
Dr. John LaNoue, Jr. is a skillful man, but he does not take credit for his work.
He sees himself as a facilitator of the healing power of Christ.
This is a humble position from which to see the world and one from which we would all be better served to endeavor.
Very few of us get to save lives on a daily basis, but all work matters.
It matters more if we do it in the name and service of Jesus.
Are you serving the Lord and allowing him to work through you?
Dr. LaNoue is, and we would all do well to take a lesson from his efforts and humble conviction.
Austin Lewter is the co-publisher of the Jefferson Jimplecute. He can be reached at publisher@ntin.net.