Church Organist Is Back, Minus an Arm but Very Thankful

Musician Mark Thallander was lying on an operating table in August after a car wreck, pleading with doctors not to amputate his crushed left arm.

“ ‘I’m an organist, I’m an organist,’ I kept telling them,” he said.

But the arm could not be saved. Doctors did manage to save Thallander’s life, giving him several transfusions to replace the 70% of his blood he lost. He was released seven days later.

But then came therapy, during which he had to learn how to balance his walk. In time, he taught himself to shower and drive with one hand.

For the severity of his injuries, his recovery was fairly quick. Thallander credits that to the prayers of thousands of churchgoers who know his work.

Four months later, Thallander returned to Lake Avenue Church in Pasadena to perform. He sat before the church’s behemoth organ -- outfitted with 7,027 pipes -- and played Charles Callahan’s “Christmas Fantasy” as a duet with another organist for an audience of several hundred.

“I realize God left me here for a purpose,” said the 53-year-old Thallander, who was the church’s music director from 1995 to 1998. “I hope I’ll inspire other people to fulfill their dreams.”

By condensing musical scores, Thallander has continued to play his favorite hymns. The organ demands nifty footwork, a strong suit of his, which lessens his disadvantage. He has also increased the role of his right hand.

“I think he was awesome,” said Jennifer Russell after Thursday’s concert.

Thallander was returning to a friend’s house in Maine on Aug. 3 when a storm struck. After missing his exit on the highway, he lost control of his four-wheel-drive Jeep, slamming into a steel barrier. He remembers firefighters smashing the windshield to pull him out.

Later that day, Thallander was told that his father in Stockton had fallen down and was hospitalized. His father would die of his injuries shortly after. Thallander listened to the funeral on a cellphone from his hospital bed.

“We all thought his career was over,” said Julian Revie, resident organist at Lake Avenue Church, who played the duet with Thallander on Thursday. “We figured he was fortunate to be alive.”

Thallander said he was encouraged to continue playing by friends. When he returned to Stockton after the accident, he visited a local church to feel his way around the organ again. On Nov. 15, Thallander played a memorial service for his father. The following week, he played alongside a choir at the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, where he was an assistant musical director for 18 years.

Losing his father and his arm did not lessen his faith in God, Thallander said. He remembers a woman coming to his aid after his accident. She spoke to him and forced him to keep his eyes open, perhaps saving his life. Authorities later told him there was no record of any woman at the scene. Thallander is convinced she was an angel.

He is now awaiting a mechanical arm, which will be attached to his shoulder and covered in a skin-like material. The $50,000 prothesis was paid for by a local radio station’s fund-raising drive. With it, Thallander hopes to be able to play more complex music than he currently can.

“I just knew that I’d move forward somehow,” he said.