God’s Miraculous Grace

He kept praying over and over, “Dear Jesus, help me.” That was back in February. Today, Ed and Amy Sturkie are rejoicing in the miraculous grace of God.

A member of First Baptist Church in Columbia, Ed, a retired fireman, was working on his farm in nearby Gaston. He had just unloaded limbs and dirt from his 10-wheel dump truck called “The Blue Ox.” He left the truck running and got out to check the truck. When he did, he slipped, and one of the large truck tires rolled against his side, pinning him down. He was lying on soft sand and worked to dig and push himself from the wheel. After freeing himself, he climbed back into the truck and drove back to his parked van. “It was terrible climbing back into the truck — very, very painful,” he said.

He then called 911 and waited for the ambulance to arrive. He watched it go by him two times before he walked toward the road and waved. On the third pass, they saw him. On the drive to Richland Memorial Hospital, he continued to pray repeatedly, “Dear Jesus, help me.” When the ambulance arrived at the emergency room, he lost consciousness and did not awaken until two weeks later.

His injuries included 10 broken ribs with a total of 25 cracks, three broken vertebrae, a collapsed lung, a lacerated spleen and other internal injuries. Following five surgeries or surgical procedures, he was sedated for four weeks in the trauma unit, followed by four weeks of rehabilitation at a residential facility and three additional weeks of therapy at home.

He said, “Some of my friends and family who saw me at the hospital did not even recognize me. I was very swollen.” Today, he says he is about 75 percent back to normal. “God performs miracles,” he emphasized. “He looks out for us. He rescued me for a reason.”

Ed, a man of few words, relies on his wife Amy, a retired nurse, to help with the details of his story that he cannot remember. She says, “We experienced such an outpouring of God’s grace, mercy and love during his accident and recovery.”

The Sturkies have gone on a summer mission trip for the past 10 years with Builders for Christ from Alabama. They had to miss this year’s trip due to Ed’s accident. However, he is quick to point out, “We are planning to go next year.”

On the day of Ed’s first surgery, his son, Ed Jr., was having surgery at the same hospital. The day before his surgery, Amy had a stress test and discovered her twin brother had “taken a turn for the worse.” He died the following week.

Ed turned 74 while at the hospital. He could not eat, but Amy threw a birthday party for him and fed the fifth-floor hospital personnel barbecue with all the trimmings.

The evidence of God’s presence seemed to be at every turn during his brush with death. Physician Charles Petit, a hospitalist at Richland Memorial who is also an Episcopal priest, shared with Ed during his hospitalization, “You know you’re still [alive] because of the grace of God.”

How does he feel about the accident? “God was with me,” he says. The truck did not completely run over him. He managed to pull away from the tire that pinned him down because of the sandy soil at that spot. The surgeries were successful. “It is a miracle,” he said. “The Lord has blessed me. I still have some pain, but I am healing good. I thank the Lord that I am as well as I am.”

Ed and Amy Sturkie are rejoicing in the Lord today, full of life, hope, and praise to God for his miraculous grace.