Excerpts from Dr. Julian Urban, a 38 year-old serving in a Lombardy hospital:

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“Never in my darkest nightmares did I imagine that I would see and experience what has been going on in Italy in our hospital the past three weeks. The nightmare flows, and the river gets bigger and bigger. At first, a few patients came, then dozens, and then hundreds.

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Until two weeks ago, my colleagues and I were atheists. It was normal because we are doctors. We learned that science excludes the presence of God. I laughed at my parents going to church.

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Nine days ago, a 75-year-old pastor was admitted into the hospital. He was a kind man. He had serious breathing problems. He had a Bible with him and impressed us by how he read it to the dying as he held their hand.

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We doctors were all tired, discouraged, psychologically and physically finished. We have reached our limits. People are dying every day. We are exhausted. We realized that we needed to start asking God for help.

 

When we talk to each other, we cannot believe that, though we were once fierce atheists, we are now daily in search of peace, asking the Lord to help us continue so that we can take care of the sick.

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Yesterday, the 75-year-old pastor died. He had managed, despite his condition and our difficulties, to bring us a PEACE that we no longer had hoped to find. The pastor went to the Lord, and soon we will follow him if matters continue like this.

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I haven’t been home for 6 days. I don’t know when I ate last. I want to use my last breath to help others. I am happy to have returned to God while I am surrounded by the suffering and death of my fellow men.”