Testimonial - Spiritual Local Care

Video Transcript

My name is Jerry Ellingson, and I live with my wife over at Lake Preston.


How Do You Feel God Helped After Your ATV Accident?

The four wheeler was on top of me. The left arm was pinned off. The only thing I had free was my right arm. My cell phone was in my shirt pocket. I could reach that and call my wife, and I praised God for that. They wouldn't have missed me until dark, and they had no idea where to start looking for me. If it wouldn't been for the cell phone and being able to reach it, if it had been in my pocket, I wouldn't have been able to get it, and there's no doubt in my mind that I wouldn't have survived. What the cool thing about it was in the hospital, I could share that with nurses and they knew what I was talking about. So many of them said, "Well, God does have a part in our lives, doesn't he?" We could visit about it, and that just . . . I use the phrase, blowing my mind.


How Did the Staff Use Spirituality During the Healing Process?

The nursing supervisor, when she came in to ask me how everything had been when I was going to leave, I was able to share with her, and she told me something that just really enthused me. She says, "I know what you're talking about." She said, "God has a very definite part in our healing process here at the hospital." And she says, "I can tell by you, he had a part in your being here. Being able to be here." She said, "When people are in here and I come in and talk to them, just like I'm talking to you," and she says, "If I sense a need, that they might want to pray about something," she says, "I'll ask them for permission." She says, "If they want to," she says, "I will pray with them." That just really made everything so special.


What Did You Appreciate Most About the Staff?

To have somebody, the caliber of some of the people that I met here, for them to be able to ask them questions and get honest answers from them. You can't buy that. You just can't buy that. Your charge per day in a hospital doesn't include that. That comes from the people's heart that work here. That's what really, I find words hard to express how it affected me. It was just absolutely great.


What Did You Appreciate Most About Brookings Health System?

I just was so doggone pleased with the whole thing that it just, honestly, it's hard to get over being excited about it for several purposes. Like I shared the most important part was the people that I could talk to. It just blew my mind. It just really did that. I've never experience that before in any setting like this here. It's usually always just business, business, business, business you know. There was a human side, very much so here, and that I truly appreciated.