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
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↑ CONVINCED: Werner Eriksen is convinced that God gave him a new ankle to the doctor's great astonishment.
Werner lives in Børselv, in Kven Pyssyjoki and in North Sami Bissojohka, which is a village by the Porsanger Fjord, 37 kilometers northeast of Lakselv in Porsanger municipality in Finnmark. Even though he turned 72 in March 2023, he is still in full-time employment.
72 years old and still in full-time employment
“I run Børselv Taxi. I drive both taxi and bus. As low as pension payouts are today, you can’t afford anything other than to work. Therefore, I am now working ten years overtime. As long as you have the health for it, you have to keep going,” says the active 72-year-old.
He did his military service as a 19-year-old. From around the age of 21, he started working with cars and machinery, and at 24, he started his own company. Among other things, he has driven a scheduled bus route between Lakselv and Veidnesklubben. He has also driven a school bus in Børselv with pupils, and a tour bus with cruise tourists to the North Cape, and much more.
“I am not a trained car mechanic. I have an adult son who is. But after working with cars and machinery for a long life, I have gained a lot of experience and can handle most things,” he says, adding that he gets up at 05:00 every morning to go to work. He is happy as long as he has the health for it.
Victim of a nasty accident in 2012
On November 27, 2023, Werner called Svein-Magne Pedersen to ask for prayer for type 2 diabetes, which he has developed in recent years. Then the 72-year-old could tell Pedersen about an amazing miracle he experienced 12 years ago, and that it is the reason he is in full-time employment and fully fit for work today.
“On February 15, 2012, I was outside my house and was going to take a drive with the tractor, a Ferguson 35, 1963 model. Outside there was snow and minus 12 degrees,” says Werner. He had chains on the tractor tires.
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“Suddenly, my snowmobile trousers got caught in the chain on the left rear wheel. I was dragged with the wheel and swung around three or four times. The wheel stopped when it reached the gravel. I got hold of a knife from the toolbox on the tractor and cut myself free.”
“The foot was attached only by the skin”
He says he was left lying on the ground. The descriptions are vivid.
“Bone splinters and pieces of flesh lay on the ground. The flesh had been ground to pieces and lay on the snow. Crows and magpies came to eat bones and pieces of flesh from my left ankle, which was totally crushed. My shin and foot were attached only by the skin and some muscles.”
Werner managed to crawl towards the house, which was a hundred meters away. He managed to call the ambulance in Lakselv – 113.
“They arrived and got me onto a stretcher. I was driven to Lakselv. There, a Sea King helicopter was called. The leg was broken, tendons were torn off, and flesh and bones were missing. There was a military doctor on board, but he did not dare to touch my foot. I was offered morphine.”
“Actually, I should have been transported to Rikshospitalet, but it was way too far to go there. Instead, I was sent to the University Hospital of North Norway (UNN) in Tromsø. That was lucky, because a Serbian war doctor worked there who had worked for Doctors Without Borders and had dealt with many nasty injuries before.”
Refused to amputate the foot
Werner underwent surgery for five hours. He lost three liters of blood. He remembers waking up after the operation.
“Then the Serbian doctor came in to look at my foot and smell it, to find out if it was dead. He concluded there was life in the foot, but said I had no guarantee. A Norwegian doctor suggested cutting off my left leg, just below the knee, but I refused to let them do it. They also wanted to insert a metal ankle, because the ankle was missing, and stiffen the foot so that the joint movement would be gone. But I did not want them to do that either.”
Called for prayer instead
Werner says his GP wanted him on disability benefits. But he threw the approval from NAV in the trash.
Werner says he had heard of Svein-Magne Pedersen and that he called to ask for prayer three times during the three months he was in the hospital in Tromsø.
“The first time I called was three to four days after I arrived at the hospital. Pedersen read a verse and prayed for me. I also called Pedersen’s devotional telephone line several times. Three to four days after I was prayed for the first time, I felt a ‘crawling’ and tingling sensation in my ankle. After the first intercession, the pain disappeared and I did not need any more medication.”
↑ NEW ANKLE: God repaired the totally destroyed left ankle.
– New ankle with joint grew out
“After some time, I had an X-ray of my ankle at the surgical outpatient clinic. The doctor who looked at the images became completely quiet. So I asked what he saw. He replied: ‘Yes, Eriksen. It was absolutely right that you said no to fusion and amputation.’”
Because the image showed that a new ankle with bones, flesh, and joint had begun to grow out.
Werner had orthopedic shoes made at UNN, but soon he could buy regular shoes himself and throw away 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 told him about the intercession 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 is why I am completely healthy today
“But because of prayer, I am one hundred percent well today. I use no prostheses. And I can wear regular shoes and be in full-time work. I can do everything I want and carry heavy loads,” says the active 72-year-old.
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