Rick Bonner had experienced lower back pain for years. He knew he needed back surgery but, as many of us might do, he convinced himself that it was not the time.
By Nov. 14, 2014, however, Rick knew the time had come.
Everything went well with the surgery. In fact, he didn’t have to take a single pain pill. There was, however, another problem — Rick didn’t awaken from the anesthetic for 11 days.
In retrospect, he must have felt a bit like Washington Irving’s Rip Van Winkle, though the latter slept 20 years and Rick only lasted 11 days. But the journey of those days is vivid in Rick’s memory.
At the time, Rick thought he was in a Japanese hospital where people were kind and compassionate, but he had to be physically restrained. When he regained consciousness, he realized he was in an American hospital in Chattanooga. As in his dream, the staff proved to be kind and compassionate and, indeed, he had been physically restrained.