May 1, 2000
THE SHATTERED REMAINS of the Murrah Federal Building frame the new Oklahoma City memorial. Inset: Patti Hall. (Photos by Bob Nigh)
Patti Hall believes God's not done with her yet
___By Bob Nigh
___Oklahoma Baptist Messeger
___OKLAHOMA CITY (BP)--Patti Hall became a Christian just four months before she become one of the severely injured survivors of the bombing at the Oklahoma City federal building in 1995.
___After 16 surgeries and hours of therapy, frustration, pain and uncertainty, she's grateful God still has plans for her life.
___As one of the most severely injured survivors, Hall's road to physical recovery has been paved with long hours of exercise and physical therapy. And the journey continues.
___She still has pieces of glass embedded in her arms. And now she's beginning to have trouble opening jars and grasping objects and sometimes has to use a cane to help her walk, especially when the weather changes.
___Doctors still want to replace her kneecaps and do some more work on her ankles.
___Hall, now 62, suffered several broken bones, including an elbow, ribs, both ankles and one heel. Her knees were crushed, as were both of her legs. She also had a punctured lung.
___For several weeks after the explosion, she was kept in an induced coma by doctors so she wouldn't remember much of the pain and surgery. She had to learn how to talk, eat and feed herself.
___She spent two months in the hospital and was in a hospital bed and wheelchair for another seven months. It wasn't until January 1996--nine months after the explosion--that she was able to take her first steps.
___Her greatest foe today is traumatic arthritis in all the joints she's had surgery on.
___And then there are the mental and emotional battles. She suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and is in therapy for that as well.
___"My therapist told me I literally had shoved the mental aspects aside because I was busy battling the physical stuff for three years," she explained.
___She occasionally has "wild dreams and nightmares," and certain sounds--thunder, a car backfiring, brakes screeching, a telephone ringing, sirens and, especially, babies crying--take their toll on her.
___"Sirens really bother me because I know something's wrong and I don't know what's happened or who's hurt," she said. "And I can't stand to hear children crying. I guess it has to be a flashback of hearing babies cry, you know, in the bombing, because it never used to bother me."
___Though she's on medical disability and cannot work a regular job, Hall serves as a volunteer with the Salvation Army Women's Auxiliary and at the Oklahoma State Capitol, where she donates time one day each week at a souvenir kiosk.
___She has forgiven convicted conspirators Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, she said, but thinks they should spend the rest of their lives in prison.
___"I don't hate them, but I really hate what they did," she said. "I cannot even fathom why they did it.
___"But I realize each of us will have to give an account before the Lord, and I wouldn't want to be in their shoes when that happens. So I refuse to hate them, because God is going to take care of that."
___Hall admits she struggled initially with the question of why she had been spared in the blast, but now she believes "God has some things for me to do."
___"I marvel daily about how powerful God is, and I am learning more about him," said the member of Northwest Baptist Church in Oklahoma City. "I'm much closer to him than I was before, and it makes me want to give more of myself for worthwhile purposes and really be happy; I know Jesus wouldn't want me to be unhappy, not after all I've been through."
___That's why she especially enjoys her work with the Salvation Army and at the State Capitol.
___Through the social services committee of the Salvation Army, she gets to help people in need, including battered women and alcoholics.
___Working at the Capitol also has been an eye-opener, she said.
___"I was visiting with a group of tourists from England recently and asked them if they were going to visit the memorial," she recalled. "A lady asked me, 'What memorial?'
___"I said, 'We had a bombing here in 1995.' And she said, 'Well, we have those all the time.'"
___
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