As a child of divorced parents, I thought that I had it real bad. I didn't know how bad it really was until I became accountable for my own actions.
I got married to a wonderful girl when I was 20. My bride was 19. We worked in a restaurant for 4 years, while I went to college. Neither of us were with Christ. I graduated college and went to work in the real world. My wife and I had our first child right after I got a job in the Electronics. I then went to work as a Police Officer for a San Francisco Bay Area Police Department. About one year later, I took a job as a Deputy Sheriff in the county that I grew up in. When my son was 2 years old he started having Grand Mall seizures. The Doctors put him on anti-seizure medicines, but later found that he was allergic to the medicine. Due to the allergic reactions, the doctors could not gradually take him off of the medicine. They had to take him off cold turkey. They had to have him off of the medicine completely. They took him off and sent him home. I remember him laying on the couch with his smurf blanket on him. He would just lay there and go from seizure to seizure. I stopped counting at about one hundred grand mall seizures. I was kneeling over him. All I could do was watch. My son woke up at about 4 am and said, "Daddy, please make it stop!" He then fell back into a seizure.
Well daddy couldn't make it stop. I found myself kneeling over him. I realized that I was in the right position to ask God to make it stop. I remember praying, �God. I'm really not good at this, but I really need your help. You see it's my son. I can't make it stop! I really need your help, God." I found myself sobbing like a baby. After a few minutes I found that my face was laying on my sons little chest. It took me awhile, but I realized that my son wasn't convulsing any more. He woke up and said, "Hi daddy. Why are you crying?" That was the last seizure that he ever had.
I was working for the Sheriffs Department for about 4 years when my second child was on the way. I was working on patrol in a large unincorporated city. I was ready to serve a search warrant on a house that was manufacturing methamphetamine and stealing cars. While driving to the house my Sgt. called me over the radio and said, "Hey bubba, cancel the warrant. Your going to be a papa!" Well my wife was only 7 months pregnant. So something had to be wrong.
After a few minutes, he came back over the radio and said, "Hey Jerry. I think you better hurry. Something may be wrong."
I distinctly remember driving the 20 minute drive in about 10 minutes. The lights and sirens on all the way. While I was on the way, I remember gripping the steering wheel and praying. I said, �God it's me again. I know you really helped me last time. I got another problem and I think it might be a really big one. God if you help me out on this one, I'll even go to church."
I pulled into the hospital parking lot. I got out of the patrol car and walked directly to the delivery area. The Doctor walked up to me and handed me a little baby boy. He said, " Well Mr. Quinn, you will never ever realize the series of miracles that had to happen for me to be able to hand over this young lad." He continued, �Your wife is in critical care and your son needs at least two blood transfusions." We think they will be alright if we can get your permission to proceed.� I said yes and he took my son away to the neonatal intensive care unit.
Years later I had lunch with the doctor. He explained the following:
That my wife had a Placenta abrupto (sic). It�s when the placenta tears away from the uterus wall. In this instance, it not only tore away from the uterus wall, it also tore the uterus wall apart. On most of these both the mother and the child usually do not survive (10,000 to one). The way my wife�s happened had never had both the mother and child survive (he estimated one in every 100,000 may have the mother live-never both surviving). My wife lost approximately 5 pints of blood. By the will of God, it happened at her prenatal check up. And the staff on scene had experienced a placenta abrupto one month earlier. The staff broke all the rules and sent her by ambulance to the nearest hospital instead of the clinics emergency ward 30 minutes away. The nearest hospital was approximately two hundred yards away. And this hospital just opened their neonatal intensive care ward, two weeks earlier. The doctor that performed the two minute cesarean section had set up the delivery ward for a non-emergency placenta abrupto surgery. Then they were notified that an emergency placenta abrupto that was being sent from the other hospital. They even had the right blood type set up for my wife.
Both my wife and son survived without any sign of complications.
Well I went to church about 12 times after that. I just didn�t seem to find a church that I was comfortable with. So I stopped looking.
About 9 years later, my partner filed a racial discrimination lawsuit against my department. I joined his suit at first to support my partner. Later I realized it was because it was the right thing to do. Yes I am a minority. But to look at me and talk with me you probably wouldn�t know it. I�m half Asian. The basis of the lawsuit was that in 27 years no minority deputy was ever promoted. Well the retaliation happened immediately. I started getting all the reports on the shift. I started getting all the dangerous calls and one night one of the dispatchers called me on her personal cell phone and asked, �Why is the sergeant making me send you to domestic dispute calls without a cover unit?�
Well then they tried to get rid of me with disciplinary issues. When that didn�t work they tried to fire me. They said that 9 years earlier I reported that an officer from another agency savagely assaulted a suspected drunk driver. They have recently conducted an internal investigation on the matter and have concluded that they could not prove that the incident could have happened the way that I had reported that it occurred. They even interviewed the two officers that were allegedly the suspects in the assault. The officers completely denied any such incident. The department was trying to terminate me as unfit for duty due to these issues.
We went to court and the superior court judge ruled, �The actions against this officer are so lacking, it gives me great concern.� He threw the action out. Three months later municipal court judge over ruled the previous courts rulings and ordered me to proceed with the termination process.
I was ordered to got to the Departmental Psychologist. When we returned to court for the results of the shrink. The judge took the bench and said, � No one informed me that his (my) lawsuit was in the Federal Court. I was under the impression that it was in the local jurisdiction. I am hereby reversing my previous orders.� He then left the courtroom.
Well the Department would not let me come back. They sent me a letter that said the last date for my pay would be 6-30-97. I then got a call from my Attorney in the Discrimination Lawsuit. My partner had settled his suit. He also signed the agreement stating that he would not testify on my behalf in my lawsuit. The next day I received a letter from my Attorney stating that on 6-30-97 a hearing would be held for my attorneys to withdraw as the attorneys of record in the Discrimination Lawsuit. I was then notified by the Deputy Sheriffs Association attorney that after 6-30-97 he would no longer be able to represent me in the labor actions. After 6-30-97 I would have no income, no job and no idea as to what I was going to be facing in the lawsuit. I was alone.
On 6-29-97, a Sunday. I didn�t sleep at all. My wife came to me and said, �What would it hurt if we went to church?� We went to the church that my father went to before he passed away. Most of the members remembered us by name. The pastor definitely remembered us. He prayed with us. Not for us to get our way. He prayed that the Lord show us the path that he wants us to travel.
On 6-30-97 the court hearing was by conference call. I was about to get involved with the hearing to have my attorneys in the Discrimination Lawsuit withdraw from the case. I sat and prayed, �Lord. I know that I have lied and betrayed you. If you are real, please answer me these three questions. How will I get representation in both legal actions? Where will I get a job to support my family? Will another job give me enough income to support my family?
The court hearing was by conference call. The judge was furious that my attorneys would bail out and leave me without representation. He ordered them to continue to represent me free of charge. The conference call then ended. My attorney in the labor actions called 2 minutes later. He said, �Jerry, I just spoke with my boss. I can continue representing you for no costs.� I began to breath again. The doorbell then rang. It was a friend of mine that owned his own company. He offered me a job. It didn�t pay as much as I got as a cop, but it would help. I then found that I had paid into an insurance fund through my association dues that would compensate my income until the court actions were settled.
God, no coincidence, no other persons. God answered every question I had. Not because I asked for it. Because he wanted to make sure I knew without any doubt that he was real. On the first two miracles I turned my back on him and his mercy. Using the free will that he gave me. I turned from him twice. When I turned back to him, he was there. He never turned from me. He was always there.
Since then I left law enforcement and took the job that God arranged for me. I also have attended church without failure. I help out with the youth group. I took the youth group to "Acquire the Fire" in 1999 and discovered what my purpose in life is. It is to
worship God.
I have committed to giving back to the debt that Jesus Christ paid for me. I know I can never repay the debt. But I will happily die while I�m still trying.
God Bless You. Jerry Quinn.
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