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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nHe now has two steel prosthetic legs, from the knee down. The pacemaker came the next year as a way to regulate his heartbeat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMy church calls me \u2018The Bionic Duck,\u2019\u201d Duck said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His experience did more than change him physically, however. Duck said it changed the way he saw suffering, both Christ\u2019s and others\u2019, and gave him greater compassion toward\u2013 all the people in daily pain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTo go through this really made the reality set in that there are real people who are hurting tremendously bad and suffering \u2014 and I still suffer,\u201d Duck said. \u201cWhen you have walked in that path and you have felt that similar pain it becomes more real [to] you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now he encourages patients in the hospital and people everywhere with a new message, shown by his own struggle and subsequent victory. Duck first learned to be independent in the Air Force, learned it again when his wife died, and now practices it every day as he manages his house on two feet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThrough the trials and the valleys that you face in life \u2014 that you must have that faith and determination, you must stay in the ring, you must keep your gloves on \u2014 continue to fight and realize that the bell has not been sounded, you still have life in your body, and you need to fight to the finish,\u201d Duck said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was Duck\u2019s family, community, and faith that helped him keep his determination, even when most people thought he was going to die. His daughter and son-in-law, Tiffany and Drew Dearing, stood over his bed every day even when he was unconscious, Duck said, and encouraged him to keep fighting. The doctors and nurses who worked with him were just as important to his recovery. Many, he said, he is now close friends with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI consider Dr. Saum one of my best friends, and not just as a surgeon but as a tremendous man, and they were all instrumental in my healing,\u201d Duck said. \u201cMy daughter and my son-in-law were very instrumental, and of course my God was powerfully influential in my healing and what happened to me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Duck surpassed all expectations. People expected him to retire, and he didn\u2019t. He was told he may never preach again,\u00a0and he does. People in that situation need to take life one day at a time, Duck said, fight through that day and try to get out of it the greatest lesson in life they can: that value can be found through their life, their faith, and their family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m not ashamed of my steel,\u201d Duck said. \u201cI\u2019m not ashamed to put on a pair of shorts \u2014 to show my legs and show people that you can get up after being knocked down, and you can get back in the stream of life, and you can live.\u201d GN<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" “I’m 77 years old, and I\u2019m not about to quit,\u201d Pastor Carlton Duck said, and he proves that statement every time he cuts his grass, drives his car, or stands up Sunday morning to preach a sermon at Gethsemane Baptist Church. Two amputated legs and a pacemaker haven\u2019t been able to stop him from living […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":22738,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/goodnewsmags.com\/lynchburg-va\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2024\/12\/2-1024x683.png\")
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