My Journey

Good morning! My name is Marshall Cooper. Bear with me now. Bert’s given me his blessings. There’s just no short and easy way to share my journey. However, Bert assures me that he is compensating for my longer testimony with a shorter sermon!

I’m pretty sure I became an employee of the 1 Pres. in the fall off 2004. It’s a bit of drive from Pennsylvania for us: my wife Barbara and our three daughters, Emily, Alexis and Megan. We moved to the States after nearly 20 years of singing and living in Europe.

As a singer I was very happy to have a regular church gig and some steady income. But in the beginning this was just another job to me. I’ve sung in many houses of worship before, many different faiths. You see that’s it, I was always just an employee. I never got to become or had the feeling that I belonged or was invited in to be a part any of those other places.

What happened in my life that changed all of that? My doctor called it catastrophic.

My wife and I were in a major car accident in January of 2003. We walked away without major injury, so we thought.

But a year and ½ later, on stage in Harrisburg, PA, I had an excruciating pain and numbness strike me in my left hip and down my leg. So bad I didn’t think I could make it off the stage. Everyone got to see a slow decline in my walking; not so visible was the decline in my spirit. I didn’t have health insurance and I was in denial about how much pain I was in.

I was at my regular doctor for a check up and she talked me into seeing a local orthopedist. He said I needed a new hip. So, I told him about my insurance situation and he kind of said, oh well. You need about 60 to 70 thousand dollars for the procedure, here are some painkillers and there’s the door. Good luck.

 I was really lost. I thought this was how I would spend the rest of my life, as a cripple, end of career, end of being able to move. It was that painful to walk, to sing, and to sit, to anything. And the pain medication eventually made me sick too. It tore my insides apart.

One night as usual, I was sitting at the computer; I didn’t sleep well and spent a lot of time trying to lose myself in cyberspace. I think I had sunk to my lowest point and God started to step in and guide me.  I remembered about a ‘60 minute’ TV show segment about ‘medical tourism’, it seemed an affordable alternative.

That night I must have sent out a dozen emails to hospitals in India. One response really stuck out and got my attention from Dr.G.Balasubramanian, Dr Bala for short, an orthopedist with the Sri Ramakrishna Hospital in Coimbatore, India. His specialty is hip and shoulder resurfacing. In fact, he got his training and was part of the medical development team in Manchester, England where the technique was developed.

There was humanity to his emails. I found a sympathetic voice on the other side of the world. He answered all of my and my orthopedics questions and went a step further. He simply said, “Don’t worry Marshall, I’ll take care of you.” His words filled me with hope and trust. So I had new x-rays taken, emailed them to Dr Bala, got the word from my local doctor that he would give me follow up care after the surgery, set a date for traveling to India, got a visa and booked my flight.

I traveled there alone. I couldn’t wait any longer.  It was a long and difficult journey, took 28 hours with 2 layovers.  God guided me across the world for healing of body and soul. That’s what I found there.

Unfortunately, my hip was too damaged for a resurfacing and needed a complete replacement.

My life was turning around! I had the surgery and was up and walking without any pain the day after! I was going up and down stairs the next day. I was finding that my life wasn’t over. I’d be able to dance at my daughters’ weddings some day!!

I stayed in India under Dr Bala’s care for a little over two weeks. I wish I could have stayed longer. I had been shown such kindness by some of the sweetest people I had ever met. I felt God’s spirit in them. But home and family beckoned for me and I returned and was having a very good recovery.

 Here comes the catastrophic part. The doctor who promised he’d give me follow up care now refused to see me!! That was tough. I was having problems; the wound wasn’t healing up right. It wasn’t closing. I needed help. I found other ways to get medical assistance through a local wound center. It was really set up for diabetics, but they would see me, and they and me got me through a rough time. Now it was summer, 5 months later. I was mowing the lawn again and splitting wood, sweating like a horse and doing all that I could.

Suddenly, and I mean within a 24 hour period, a goose egg sized thing grew out of my wound. The wound doctor’s face went gray and he immediately sent me to the emergency room. The orthopedist who refused to see me was the orthopedist on call. And he still refused to see me. I was admitted, x-rayed, blood tested, cat scanned informed by the hospitalist that he thought we had a catastrophic event going on, huge infection, cracked bones, just end of life stuff.

Remember, I still didn’t have any health insurance. Part of me thought it would be easier if I just died. Thank God that the hospitalist didn’t think so. Thank God that God didn’t think so.

He got me to the best man for the job, Dr Eric Martin. I was transferred to the Orange Regional Medical Center in Middletown, NY, with family in tow. We had to wait quite a while there in the Emergency Room, where guess what, this boil, goose egg thing on my leg burst open. It was quite an infection.

I was admitted, x-rayed, blood tested, cat scanned again and seen by Dr Martin. He informed us that the whole hip replacement had to be removed, a medical spacer put in, in its’ place and I would need to do 6 weeks worth of intravenous antibiotics.

How could we pay for all this? How would we make it through? But I calmed done, the same calm that I had in India. A voice inside said everything would be okay. I felt gentle hands holding me up. I felt Gods’ presence.

What followed was six months with 5 more operations.

With the first Dr Martin had to remove the hip replacement, my femur bone had grown into the hardware. I woke up during the surgery and thought I heard a carpenter hammering nearby. It was Dr Martin trying to hammer the hardware out. He ended up having to break my leg to get the hip replacement out. He says I’ve got great bones. He cabled them together, cleaned the wound and made and fitted the medical spacer into my leg and hip. 10 days in the hospital.

Through a miracle, the State of Pennsylvania was going to give us emergency Medicaid coverage. Health insurance!!! The miracle was and is my wife, Barbara. I not sure how she did it, but she moved mountains to get it done.

I don’t know if you remember, but as soon as I was able to move a little, I came back to 1^st Pres. I came and sang. I came and was blessed with the good wishes and that same sweetness that I had found a half world away. I came and listened to the Pastor’s words. I came and felt those same gentle hands of the Lord hold me up. He seemed to be wherever I went. He, 1^st Pres and the people in my life gave me strength to continue on.

I went back in to the hospital, just before Thanksgiving. I was going to get my second hip.

I was on the gurney waiting to go into the operating room when Dr Martin came to me with another one of those gray looking faces. He had the results of my latest blood tests and they were not good.  Something was going wrong again. No operation, no new hip. This meant another week of testing without conclusive findings. He had to go back into my leg to see what was going wrong. It turned out to be the cables holding the bones together. The antibiotics weren’t able get underneath them and the infection was starting to fester again!!!

I got a new medical spacer, filled with antibiotics, and the cables were taken out, the bone had mended. I had to do another six-week course of intravenous antibiotics and now, two more additional oral antibiotics. My wound wouldn’t stop bleeding and I had another operation to close it up better. I finally got home 21 days later.

I came back to 1^st Pres again; it was Christmas time already. New Year’s 2008 came and it was the last day of my PICC line. I had new blood tests 2 weeks later, saw Dr. Martin and got scheduled for another surgery. There were more tests and then tears when I was told I was clean of infection and I’d get a new hip the next morning. Those gentle hands weren’t just holding and guiding me I realized, but also my family, my doctor, and all who I met. 

January 24^th, 2008.  I was again given another new life. A chance to dance with my daughters, a chance to see them grow up, a chance to spend years with my soul mate, a chance to sing and perform again, a chance to share.

Every time I drive into the driveway here I know that I’ll be greeted and reminded of that feeling of Gods’ presence, of His miracles, even if I might lose it or not see them in this wonderful and cruel world.

Dr. Martin told me I’m one of them. I lived, I survived, I have my leg, I have returned to a healthy, productive, loved filled life. But I know I’m not a miracle.

The power of God moved in me and still does. I had a choice to give up on life or to follow the silent guidance that was being given me, that held me up when I despaired. I heard his voice here and in the world around me. I take it with me. I recognize Gods’ every day miracles now when I see them.

My catastrophe renewed my faith and has shown me that goodness is here along with the bad, side by side.  I think I finally understand the 23 Psalm.

The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
He leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul:
He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name' sake.

 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil: For thou art with me;
Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies;
Thou annointest my head with oil; My cup runneth over.

 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever.