Dear Caring Friends and Family of Jim Wiegand. Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your, prayers, support and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting.
This is Jim's story. On Tuesday, September 27th, Jim and his brother John were baling hay along a road near their home place. The baler needed some work. John was on the tractor that was attached to the baler. Jim leaned over the baler as he was working on it, unfortunately catching his coveralls in the PTO. From what we can surmise, it picked him up and slung him over causing him to land on the ground, beneath the baler and hitting his head on a jack attached to the baler. It happened so fast. John did not actually see it happen. He had turned away for just a moment. When he looked back he saw Jim on the ground. He called 911, checked his pulse. Although he had a pulse, he was not breathing. The Lord gave John the insight and ability to provide rescue breathing until the paramedics arrived. Thankfully, they came quite quickly. Jim was then taken to OSF St. Francis in Peoria. He has suffered a Spinal Cord injury at the C7-T1 Level. That night, the trauma team informed us that he needed immediate surgery to stabilize his cervical spine and to remove the bones from the spinal column that were pressing in on his spinal cord, causing potential damage to important nerves. Many of us were already praying. We were thankful that Roanoke ministers Tom Hoffman and Tim Hohulin were there. Brother Tom had a prayer with Jim and family prior to his surgery. We all were able to see him at that time. He was opening his eyes and blinking. Praise the Lord, the surgery went well. He is now in the Neuro ICU and has begun a new journey; one which he and all of us will travel... with Jesus by our side. We know that our Lord is in control and loves Jim more then anyone else can. We know that so many care and love Jim; from young children, like his great nieces and nephews, to the elderly and those in between. We also take great comfort in knowing of Jim's love and trust in his Savior and Great Physician.
It is our prayer that the Lord would heal Jim as He sees fit, knowing He is a God of miracles. We pray that Jim would sense and know the Lord's abundant peace and presence and that our Lord would be glorified in all things. So, feel free to check in whenever you would like and to follow along on this journey. God bless you all.
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