Werner Eriksen’s right ankle was completely shattered in the accident
“After prayer, it started tingling in the foot, and a new ankle with joints and flesh gradually grew out”
“Prayer to God is the only thing that helps.”
By
Eli Bondlid
|
Photo
Private
|
Published
↑ CONVINCED: Werner Eriksen is convinced that God gave him a new ankle to the doctor's great astonishment.
Werner lives in Børselv, in Kven language Pyssyjoki and in Northern Sami Bissojohka, which is a village by Porsangerfjorden, 37 kilometers northeast of Lakselv in Porsanger municipality in Finnmark. Even though he turned 72 in March 2023, he is still working full-time.
72 years old and still working full-time
– I run Børselv Taxi. Driving both cabs and buses. With pensions as low as they are today, one cannot afford anything but to work. That's why I'm working ten years overtime now. As long as one has the health for it, one has to keep going, says the spry 72-year-old.
He did his military service at the age of 19. From around the age of 21, he began working with cars and machinery, and at 24, he started his own firm. Among other things, he has driven the route bus between Lakselv and Veidnesklubben. And driven the school bus in Børselv with schoolchildren, and a tour bus with cruise tourists to Nordkapp and much more.
– I am not a trained car mechanic. I have an adult son who is. But after dealing with cars and machinery for most of a lifetime, I have gained a lot of experience and manage most things, he says, adding that he gets up at 5:00 AM every morning to go to work. He is happy as long as he has the health for it.
Involved in a serious accident in 2012
On 27 November 2023, Werner called Svein-Magne Pedersen to request prayer, for type 2 diabetes that he has developed in recent years. Then the 72-year-old could tell Pedersen about a fantastic miracle he experienced 12 years ago, and that it is the reason he is in full-time work and fully fit for work today.
– On February 15, 2012, I was outside my house about to go for a ride with the tractor, a Ferguson 35, 1963 model. Outside, it was snowing and minus 12 degrees, Werner recalls. He had chains on the tractor wheels.
Thank you for your support now of any amount 🙏🏻
– Suddenly, my scooter pants got caught in the chain of the left rear wheel. I was dragged with the wheel and was thrown around three or four times in confusion. The wheel stopped when it reached the gravel. I grabbed a knife from the toolbox on the tractor and cut myself free.
– The foot was held together by the skin
He describes how he was lying on the ground. The descriptions are intense.
– Bone splinters and pieces of meat were on the ground. The meat had been ground into pieces and lay on the snow. Crows and magpies came to eat bone and meat pieces from the left ankle, which was completely shattered. The leg and foot were held together only by the skin and some muscles.
Werner managed to drag himself over to the house, which was a hundred meters away. He managed to call an ambulance in Lakselv – 113.
– They came and got me on a stretcher. I was taken to Lakselv. There, a Sea King helicopter was summoned. The leg was broken, tendons were severed, and there was a lack of flesh and bones. There was a military doctor on board, but he didn’t dare touch my foot. I was offered morphine.
– I was originally supposed to be transported to the National Hospital, but it was far too long a journey there. Instead, I was sent to the University Hospital of Northern Norway (UNN) in Tromsø. It was lucky, because there was a Serbian war doctor working there who had worked for Doctors Without Borders and had dealt with many nasty injuries before.
Refused to amputate the foot
Werner was operated on for five hours. He lost three liters of blood. He remembers when he woke up after the surgery.
– The Serbian doctor came in to look at my foot and smell it, to determine if it was dead. He concluded that there was life in the foot, but said there was no guarantee. A Norwegian doctor suggested cutting off my left leg, right below the knee, but I refused to let them do it. They also wanted to insert a metal ankle, as he lacked an ankle, and stiffen the foot so that the joint movement would be gone. But I didn’t want them to do that either.
Called instead for prayer
Werner says that his regular doctor wanted to retire him on disability. But he threw NAV's approval in the trash.
Werner says that he had heard about Svein-Magne Pedersen and that he called to ask for prayer three times during the three months he was hospitalized in Tromsø.
– The first time I called, it was three–four days after I came to the hospital. Pedersen read a verse and prayed for me. I also called Pedersen’s devotional phone several times. Three–four days after I was prayed for the first time, I felt it starting to 'creep' and tingle in my ankle. After the first prayer, the pain disappeared and I no longer needed medication.
↑ NEW ANKLE: God repaired the totally destroyed left ankle.
– A new ankle with joints grew out
– After a while, I had an X-ray of the ankle at the surgical outpatient clinic. The doctor who looked at the images became completely silent. So I asked what he saw. He replied: 'Yes, Eriksen. It was absolutely right that you said no to stiffening and amputation.'
For the image showed that a new ankle with bones, flesh, and joints had begun to grow out.
Werner had orthopedic shoes made at UNN, but soon he could buy regular shoes himself and discard the crutches.
– The doctor had never seen anything like it
– The Serbian doctor said he had never experienced anything like it in his entire medical practice. I talked about the prayer and said that 'there is nothing else that helps'.
↑ MIRACLE: The previously destroyed left ankle is now completely fine – and even better than the right one.
– That’s why I’m completely healthy today
– But because of prayer, I am one hundred percent well today. I use no prosthetics. And I can wear regular shoes and work full-time. I can do everything I want and carry heavy loads, says the sprightly 72-year-old.
Thank you for your support now of any amount 🙏🏻
