To the editor:

Quick, someone has been hurt with head and neck injuries.

The necessary training and skill was immediately available at Whidbey General Hospital one Saturday afternoon recently. That was me with the need for care, lying unconscious as the result of a bicycle accident on the highway near the thrift shop in Freeland where I went over the front wheel fast, landing head first on the pavement. A helmet prevented head damage, but broken bone prevention was too much to ask for from a helmet.

Later I was to learn that the neck-and-head injuries I sustained were expertly cared for first by the EMT responders and then by the emergency crew at Whidbey General. As a result, I am alive and without nerve damage today. A miracle with God’s grace is evident from the medical skills that were available on an emergency basis, and from my current expectation that I can recover fully without surgery from a broken and fractured spine and fractured facial bones.

Thank you, to my unknown medical providers. You are trained and available. The service that you provide changes lives and saves the quality of lives. You gave me an active future, free from physical damage as a result of my serious accident. I am grateful. Thank you.

Robert Peterson

Freeland