Confronting Adversity and Finding Grace

In early 2006, John F. Smith III, an American lawyer, civic leader, and frequent international traveler, broke his pelvis and sustained urological injuries in a horseback riding accident in a remote part of KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa. Although he suffered painful back spasms and internal bleeding, he was unable to get from the primitive location of his accident to a health care facility for over twenty-four hours. This memoir describes the journey that Smith and his wife made from the Zulu village where he was injured to a small but capable regional hospital in the town of Empangeni, his experiences there, and his subsequent medical repatriation to the United States. More important, it is an account of the remarkable people who helped them along the way and the insights that arose out of this shattering-but ultimately transformative-experience.