The Miracle About Miracles

By Schoeman Rudman

That what seems to be the solid truth is in fact a hologram of vibrating energy tricking our senses and therefore our minds into believing the illusion.

That whatever meaning we attach to anything creates our truth. That what we believe to be good is in fact not always good, and our definition of bad is in fact sometimes our biggest growth opportunity.

However, getting trapped into spirals is often our biggest challenge when we create unconsciously. The power of faith is such that once and as long as we believe anything, it is true.

This book is about my personal journey through the jungle of mysteries, my personal roller-coaster ride through life and my discovery that as humans we are all destined to be exactly what we believe we are.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: May 30, 2017
• ISBN: 9781387004812

Book preview

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Chapter 1

The Spark

On Tuesday 18 June 2013 at about 07h40 I was sitting in my TV lounge with a cup of coffee that I just poured. Lian (my son) and his family left early that morning for Jeffrey’s Bay to start a new life, and I was wondering if they managed to beat the early morning Johannesburg traffic. Co-Co (my Yorkie) was with me, and I was about to start drinking my coffee when I heard Grace (our domestic lady) make a funny muffled noise. I jumped up and ran to her to ask her what was wrong. She was standing in the passage where the stairs come up from the lower level and she pointed in the direction of the bedrooms. A man with a gun went there; she said.

Renette (my wife) was still in bed, and there was no way out for the man other than the way he went in. I had to make a split-second decision. I knew that a man would not walk in casually with a gun in broad daylight if he was not prepared to shoot. If I simply walked into the room, he would hold us at gunpoint and heaven knows what he could do. In South Africa, it is common practice to be terrorized and even tortured under such circumstance, and I could not take that risk. 

I decided to run as quickly as possible down the passage and into the room. We have wooden floors, and I knew he would hear me approach and understood that I was not going to surrender. He could also not know if I had a gun, so his best option would be to wait just inside the door and then hit or shoot me as I entered. It was a life-threatening risk, but I really had no other acceptable option. Everything worked out perfect; as I got to the door I saw his fist coming at my jaw. I expected it, so I ducked away and the punch slid off the side of my jaw. Unfortunately, I slipped in the process, and as I fell to the floor I felt an excruciating pain. I looked at my foot, and saw that my ankle broke off totally. It was dangling on the skin!

Fortunately, when I looked up I realized that the man ran away. Renette ran to me and because she did not know where the man was, she pulled me into the bedroom. I told her to press the panic button, but she was in shock and could not find the remote. Finally, I managed to reach the drawer with the remote and I pressed the panic button. Outside we heard a number of gunshots, and then one of our neighbors (Francois) ran into the room. He realized what has happened, and called for an ambulance. We later learned that the gunshots came from our other neighbor (Robert, also a police reservist) who saw that the one security gate was forced open and that a car without number plates was parked outside. As the intruder drove off, Robert fired shots at the vehicle.

Within minutes, everything turned into chaos. Security guards, the police and the ambulance arrived and everyone wanted to do different things at the same time. The most important thing however was for the rescue team to stabilize me. They noticed that because of the severity of the fractures, there was a real grave risk that bone marrow could get into my blood stream with a terminal effect. It took them almost an hour to stabilize me, and I was in the most excruciating pain I have ever experienced in my entire life! Co-Co climbed onto my chest, and he was licking me constantly to pacify me. Finally, after injecting me with morphine, the rescue team was ready to move me to the ambulance. I told Renette not to tell Lian what happened, because I knew he would turn around to come and support us and I was convinced that I would be fine soon and that it was better not to disrupt their move.

It is not easy to carry a large man down stairs in a little stretcher (at that point I weighed 110 kg), but finally they managed. What a wonderful team of experts. They really saved the day for me. By the time we got to the trauma unit at Unitas hospital, I was sedated enough to just let things happen. It took hours to get admitted and then go for x-rays, and I was told that I would have to undergo emergency surgery.

Renette only managed to get to hospital by about 13h00 because of all of the police statements and calls she had to make to get things sorted out. The intruder took my wallet with my drivers license and all my credit cards and other club cards, so she had to report it to the relevant companies. He also took her cellphone and my laptop with my entire business on it. She needed a new phone as soon as possible to restore her communications, and I needed to replace my laptop to enable me access to my business information. Fortunately, I backed up everything on an Apple Time Machine and that was not taken. Lian phoned at about 18h00 to tell us that they have safely arrived in Jeffrey bay, and I told him what happened. He was furious that we did not tell him immediately, but I assured him that everything was under control and that it was better that we did not disrupt their plans.

At about 19h00 that night I went in for surgery, and at 21h30 I was in the ward. The operation was a huge success, and the next afternoon the orthopedic surgeon was ready to discharge me. I was excited to go home, but Renette refused point blank (she has this uncanny sixth sense that seldom fails her). She asked the doctor to keep me in hospital for one more day.

That night my ankle started swelling viciously, and within hours my ankle and lower leg was huge. Thursday morning the surgeon visited me and told the nursing staff that because of the severe swelling the bandage was too tight and that they would have to re-do the dressing, but when Renette visited me Thursday evening they have still not done anything about the dressing. By now my leg below the knee was purple grey and so hot that it almost burned you when you touched it. The nursing staff was told to constantly put ice packs on the leg, but again it did not happen. Often Renette would discover that there were no ice packs, and when she got upset about it she was told that the ice machine was broken. Eventually the blood started seeping out of the wounds. I was told that the swelling created fracture blisters, and that they might have to open up the wounds to clean it out. 

I also experienced excruciating pain. By the Friday I started developing a high fever, and not long after that I started getting confused. I would remember certain things, but other things (like what the date was and what car I was driving) I would forget. It was virtually impossible for me to eat, and every time Renette asked me what I wanted to eat I told her that we must discuss it later. The Sunday they took me for x-rays and they took blood samples to determine exactly what caused the fever, but they were still uncertain. By now I was only semi-conscious, and the prognosis was not good. What started out as a bad but ordinary fractured ankle, was turning into a very serious situation. Renette spoke to Lian, and he was on the next flight to Johannesburg to support his mother.

The next morning the doctor told us that he was going to operate again the next day to clean everything out. Unbeknown to me (and also at that stage Renette) he was not certain if he would have to amputate my lower leg or whether he could save it. The fight was now on to save my leg.

This time the operation was a bit of a nightmare. They realized early into the procedure that I had pneumonia, and the anesthetist battled to keep me going. Eventually the operation was a huge success though, and they managed to save my foot. The one problem with my ankle was that the skin on the inside was so close to the bone that they were not certain if it was going to grow.

Unfortunately, it did not help my general condition. By Tuesday 25 June I was running a temperature of 39,9 degrees, and they feared that I would go into convulsions at any moment. They took me for a spiral scan of my lungs and more blood tests, and discovered that I had full-blown pneumonia and my leg was now secondary. The fight was on to safe my life. An emergency trolley with resuscitation equipment was ready close to my bed. A physician was called in early afternoon, and she ordered that I be moved to the intensive care unit immediately. However, there was no room for me in any of the intensive care units. By late evening the situation was so serious that the physician ordered the matron to make place no matter how, and by about 21h00 I was moved. At least now I had very good care. They took blood samples every four hours and monitored my condition constantly.

The next day by late morning they managed to get my fever down to 35,8 degrees, and they moved me to out of intensive care. I was looking and feeling better, and also managed to eat soup.

I was in a semi-coma most of the time, so I was blissfully unaware of the drama playing out. However, it was pure hell for Renette and Lian. They did not know what to expect, and just when they thought things would get better it took a turn for the worse. Renette could also not trust the nursing staff to take the necessary care of me, so she had to oversee the process without getting in their way and annoying them. I have to ad that a number of individual staff went out of their way