Heroes of Hope—A Doctor’s Story

A young four-year-old boy in Montgomery, Alabama woke up in the middle of the night with severe pain in his legs. His parents carried him to St. Margaret’s Hospital emergency room. He could barely move his legs. He was a victim of the beginning of the polio epidemic. They put him in a wheelchair for about a year. He thought it was pretty cool to have his own wheels. 

His parents enrolled him in a ballet class to try to help him walk, but his buddies were outside playing sports. He was upset but also grateful because two other kids in wheelchairs with him did not live long.

He went to Dalraida Elementary School. After a few days, the teacher told his mother that she should get some books and read to him because “he was not public-school material.” Boy was that teacher wrong. After the sixth grade, he only had one “B” until he graduated number one among 760 in his graduating class at Robert E. Lee High School!

After graduating from high school, he got a job selling Bibles. The company sent him to Indianapolis. He became the number two salesman in America for that company. He came home and finished at Auburn University and intended to get a PHD and come back and teach at Auburn.

He visited a college roommate who had been admitted to medical school. He decided that God wanted him to go to medical school. While it was tough to get in, he never gave up hope. At the last minute, a student dropped out and he was admitted to UAB.

He and his wife had no money. He went to class and looked around and thought everybody was smarter than he, but he did have hope. He wound up finishing number two in the class in med school and was awarded the Searcy Memorial Award in Psychiatry. Upon graduation, he was accepted into internal medicine and later into a pulmonary critical care fellowship program. Upon finishing, he came to Montgomery and for thirty-six years served with Montgomery Pulmonary Consultants.

In 2020, he was going to retire and enjoy his family. In April 2020, his partner saw the first case of COVID in Alabama. Immediately he became engaged in fighting COVID. He thought about his retirement plans, but he could not walk away from the needs that he saw. He became a national expert in the treatment of COVID. In the fall of 2020, Montgomery became the epicenter of the epidemic. He went on to treat over 7,500 people with Monoclonal Antibodies.

He received national recognition and was interviewed by major television networks. He received over 25 awards. He says his greatest award was receiving Jesus as his Savior and Lord at the Billy Graham Crusade at Crampton Bowl.

His name is Dr. David Thrasher.

He didn’t listen to the people who told him he could not get out of elementary school, couldn’t graduate from high school, couldn’t sell, couldn’t do graduate work, couldn’t get in medical school, etc. He not only did what they said he couldn’t do, but he excelled! He never lost hope. He said, “Every time I faced a new situation, it seemed to be impossible, but I knew that God was lifting me up and I would be equal to the task.” That’s the secret to success.

How are you handling what you are facing?