Ellen White’s “Sickness”

Hodder and Couperus interpret Ellen’s “sickness” ^{10Gifts, vol. 2, p. 8.} or “illness” ^{11Testimonies for the Church 1:10.} as referring to the three-week period during which, according to them, she was unconscious or in a coma. However, another explanation is possible, indeed, is more probable. According to this latter explanation Ellen’s sickness refers to her physical condition due to complications that resulted from her injury. These complications, as will be shown, could easily have led to disease of her throat and lungs, which was later diagnosed as tuberculosis. This seems to be the more natural interpretation of her expression, “my sickness,” rather than the interpretation Couperus seems to suggest, that her sickness refers, at least in part, to the mental symptoms of temporal lobe epilepsy.ViOSe 12.1