God in the ICU

By Dave Walker MD

Dr Dave Walker was a successful anaesthesiologist, used to handling major cases and following them into the ICU, But more than mere physical healing, he wanted to see his patients' lives changed. Then God broke through in his life and he started praying with his patients. Suddenly, things happened he could never have imagined.
Let him take you on a journey through Cape Town and the first heart transplant with Chris Barnard, a diamond mine in Namibia, the dreaming spires of Oxford, a desert palace and extraordinary prayer meeting in the Middle East and a hospital in mainland China to repair cleft lips. And all the while you'll witness the miraculous power of a God who answers prayer in ways that are beyond anything medicine alone can do.
Enter the drama of hi-tech medicine, the inner life of a concerned doctor, and above all, the intervention of a loving, caring God.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dave Walker MD
• Release date: Jan 17, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224484485

Dave Walker MD

Dave Walker practiced anaethesia in Pietermartizburg, South Africa for 22 years before moving to the Middle East for six years. While in practice he developed a special interest in Intensive Care and was Administrative Head of Grey's Hospital ICU for a number of years. In the Middle East, he was Head of the Anaesthetic Department at Tawam Hospital, United Arab Emirates. He currently lives in Howick, South Afrca. He is married to Dorelle, and between them they have two sons, four daughters and eleven grndchildren.

Book preview

GOD in the ICU

The inspirational autobiography

of a praying doctor

Dave Walker MD

God in the ICU

Copyright © 2011, 2022 by Dave Walker.

All rights reserved.

All Scripture quotations in this book are taken from Holy Bible, New International Version® Anglicized, NIV® Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the author, except in the case of brief quotations, nor without providing the proper credit to the author.

The opinions and views of the author are not necessarily those of the publisher. The publisher cannot be held liable for any information that could lead to defamation of any person or organisation and will not accept legal liability for any statement or claim made by the author in the manuscript.

2022 Edition:

Proofreading and layout: Elaine Broekman

GOD in the ICU

When Dave Walker suffered a series of tragedies in his life, his faith in a loving God plummeted. He decided to live for himself, since God did not appear to be interested. In spite of a successful career as an anaesthetist with a special interest in Intensive Care, however, life lost its meaning. When in desperation he sought God with all his heart, God showed up and he started praying with patients. Suddenly his life changed as he saw God intervene in response to prayer.

Set, first in a South Africa transitioning from oppression and armed struggle to reconciliation and democracy, and then moving to the Middle East, God in the ICU takes you into the life of a doctor searching for more than just physical healing for his patients. From miraculous cure to comfort in the midst of suffering, his patients in ICU started to experience God while he faced his own personal trials that kept him seeking a God that he did not understand but was learning to know more and more personally.

Contents

Acknowledgements

Foreword

Review by S. Bryan Hickox

Preface

Chapter One – A Sense of Destiny

Chapter Two – History in the Making

Chapter Three – Excitement, Tragedy and Questions

Chapter Four – Wrestling with God

Chapter Five – Restoration

Chapter Six – Private Practice

Chapter Seven – Revelation

Chapter Eight – A Poisoned Child

Chapter Nine – An Unexpected Outcome

Chapter Ten – The Compassionate Heart of Jesus

Chapter Eleven – Partnering with God

Chapter Twelve – Reprieve from Death in a Stubborn Man

Chapter Thirteen – Personal Trial

Chapter Fourteen – Drowning

Chapter Fifteen – A Difficult Man and the Power of Blessing

Chapter Sixteen – A High-Risk Operation and God’s Special Agenda

Chapter Seventeen – Trusting God in the Darkness: A Sister’s Heartbreak

Chapter Eighteen – Relocation

Chapter Nineteen – A Puzzling Illness & Prayer as a Witness

Chapter Twenty – A Little Boy with Leukaemia: Prayer as a Witness

Chapter Twenty-One – A Prayer Movement in a Muslim Nation

Chapter Twenty-Two – A God Beyond Understanding

Chapter Twenty-Three – Penny – Coming Home

Epilogue

Glossary

Prayer of Salvation

Author’s Note

Acknowledgements

This book would not have been possible without the loving support of so many people who have encouraged and helped me.

My three daughters, Mandy, Dee and Tracey, who were always very enthusiastic about the chapters that I sent them to read, and who kept me going when doubts assailed me about my capabilities to finish the job.

Then my friends, particularly Dave Ball (an enthusiast and great encourager), Garth Lee, Dave Shepherd, Richard Anderson, and Sonya Hunt, who all patiently read portions of the book and contributed to its final form with their comments and interest.

Anne Erikson, my editor, is a gem. She went beyond a mere professional interest in the way she helped. Throughout the process I felt as if I had a friend helping me to hone and refine and clarify. Thank you, Anne.

Elaine Broekman of Audience of One Media has been most helpful in formatting, re-editing and proofreading this edition.

Lastly, I wish to express my gratitude to God, who led me to start this book in the first place and, through His constant involvement in my life, has given me something to write about – in fact, something to sing about for the rest of my days.

Foreword

The Intensive Care Unit is a special place in a hospital where the care is more complicated and demanding than almost any other part of the hospital. The ratio of staff to patient is high and most patients recover well, but the risks are higher. The challenge to the doctors and the nurses is to monitor the patients well and make sure they recover quickly. With such critically ill patients and such a lot of genuine care, God is there in a special way.

I worked with Dave Walker for 15 years during which time he looked after my patients in the Intensive Care Unit, after having given the anaesthetic. Sometimes, the operation lasted 6 to 12 hours and Dave was there for the full time and then still took over in the Intensive Care Unit for a full recovery.

Dave often said a prayer with the patient, if he could, and that created an atmosphere of faith and belief in the love of God. That was special. The patients appreciated it and I loved it. In that way the operation and the recovery were blessed by God. It was as if He was there with us as part of our team.

God in the ICU is the story of Dave’s search for God... and finding Him. Dave found God and found Him abundantly. He lived his faith to the full and shared it with patients and their families in the ICU.

Dave takes us on a doctor’s journey in his approach to the most ill patients. He shares with us his compassion. That is so moving. The art of medicine is to cure.

Here we read stories of how that happens. We share the concerns, the challenges of sickness, and we experience, with Dave, the joys of healing.

From the beginning of the book the stories are moving, and a box of tissues is a help!

Dr Wolfgang Losken

Clinical Affiliated Professor, Plastic Surgery. University of North Carolina.

Review by S. Bryan Hickox

Dave Walker, in this marvellous book, God in the ICU, has provided us fertile soil in which to grow our own understanding of God’s incredible, divine intervention in life and death. He has taken us into the operating theatre with the skill of a master surgeon to experience the miraculous fingerprint of an almighty God as we are allowed to witness supernatural healings that have no human or medical explanation. Dave’s gentle touch and obedience to God’s promptings have changed countless lives. You have my assurance that your life will be changed by Dave’s book.

S. Bryan Hickox

President & CEO

Bryan Hickox Pictures, Inc

Preface

This book is the result of my experiences during an anaesthetic and Intensive Care Unit (ICU) career that spanned more than forty years. It by no means represents the sum total of my experiences of God at work in my practice. Throughout my profession I have seen Him at work almost daily; bringing courage to a patient facing a major procedure, replacing their fear with peace upon entering the operating room; smoothing the way during difficult surgery; encouraging His children with a sense of His presence or providing comfort for anxious parents. In fact, there have been very few occasions when I have offered to pray for my patients, where they have not been blessed, even if it was just by knowing that there would be a doctor in the theatre who would be praying for them.

Most times, however, my relationship with the patient has been a relatively transitory one. I would see the patients before their surgery, examine them medically and, if led, tell them of God’s faithfulness and offer to pray with them. I would see them again in the operating room and then usually for a postoperative visit. After that, they would be lost to me, unless I happened to bump into them during my rounds or they sent me a card or contacted me in some way.

The stories told here relate from instances where I could build longer-term relationships with the patient. These have lived with me over the years almost as memorial altars, reminding me constantly of God’s goodness and involvement with us. All are factually correct, although sometimes, for the sake of the story, I have had to guess at the circumstances that placed the patients in the ICU.

The names of my colleagues and those of the patients have been changed to preserve anonymity, since I have not received permission from them to identify them, and in many instances, they are not contactable. Those of my colleagues or patients who read the stories and who were involved will no doubt recognise themselves or the people involved.

Chapter One

A Sense of Destiny

Hey God, can You hear me?"

The shrill, triumphant voice of a six-year-old boy pierced the morning air from a treetop.

I had climbed to the summit of the Jacaranda tree in our garden and was savouring the victory. The ground was dizzyingly far below me and I felt sure that the top of the world could not be far off. And of course, I was close to heaven and therefore close to God.

I do not think that there was ever a time in my life when I doubted the existence of God. I remember at the questioning age of adolescence, when one thinks about things more intently and questions everything, I was at a camp in the Zimbabwean bush. I had looked around at the flat-topped thorn trees providing shade for our tents and the tall bauhinias, whose leaves fluttered in the wind like butterflies; I had listened to the ku-kurrrrrrrr of the doves overhead and seen a timid bushbuck dart through our camp; I had observed the sensitive, complex ecosystem – everything designed to harmonise and sustain life in a slow, purposeful rhythm of seasons and I had settled the question once and for all. This could not have happened by accident: God was there.

This is the tale of how He took my hand and led me down the path appointed for me, to show me the way in which He responds to our prayers and demonstrates His love in all manner of situations.

The story starts in 1940 in a simply furnished prefabricated house, nestled, with four others like it, amongst msasa trees and tawny grass in a remote part of Zimbabwe, overlooking the Umniati River. It was home to the engineer who supervised the power station. His young wife was looking anxiously at their new-born baby. He had not been well for two days, but today he looked worse. Instead of crying fretfully, he was drowsy and listless and could not take the breast.

She glanced at her husband beside her. We need to get him to the hospital, Jack. I’m worried.

It was a three-hour bumpy ride in their old truck along a bush track to Que Que (now called Kwekwe), the nearest town, and to the anxious parents each minute crawled by as their child lay still and pale beside them. They rushed into the Casualty Department, anxiously presenting the little bundle to the staff. After his examination, the doctor was abrupt.

Why did you leave it so late? Your baby has malaria. There is no chance to save him now. He is going to die!

Without even sterilising the skin, he plunged a needle into the little buttock, administering a