Posted on 01/07/2003 10:40:31 AM PST by NYer
Do you believe in miracles?
A cardiologist at Ohio State University does now.
What other explanation is there for what happened to Carla Bailey? A month ago, doctors told her shed be dead by the end of the year.
Her heart was failing. She was barely alive. Another condition, lupus, made prospects of a transplant unlikely.
On Dec. 10, the Gahanna, Ohio, residents heart was functioning at 16 percent. It was just a matter of time, doctors told her. And not much time, either.
Four days later, a program was held in her honor at her church. That night, Bailey said, I got this heavy feeling in my heart.
When doctors checked again, her hearts function had improved to 57 percent. Overnight.
Her heart apparently healed itself.
After seven months in the Ohio State University Medical Center, Bailey came home in time for Christmas.
Dr. Philip Binkley, an OSU cardiologist, said doctors shun the word miracle, but said, It does feel miraculous. We still dont understand how a heart decreased that severely improves.
Bailey understands. It was God, she said.
Im sure there are plenty of skeptics, but Im not one of them.
Ive seen a few miracles myself.
My daughter, Mary, heads the list. I had been married a year when doctors said my wife would never be able to have children. Twelve years later, my wife told me she thought she might be pregnant. I laughed, but we made a doctors appointment anyway, just in case.
The doctor called a few days early; thered been a cancellation, did we want to come in now?
So in we went, with no clue as to how important that cancellation would be.
Our expectations were low. So we were stunned when the doctor said that yes, my wife was pregnant.
Before that could even sink in, however, the doctor had disturbing news. The baby was being born. Now.
Two hours after we learned of our childs existence, our child was coming into the world. We rushed to the hospital where a cervical cerclage was performed; the uterus was sewn shut to keep the infant from being born.
But two days later, my wifes water broke, and the cerclage had to be undone. A day later, on July 19, 1991, Mary Alice Russ was born almost 4 1/2 months early.
Doctors argued whether it was even worth the effort to try to save her. They didnt argue about one thing, though they all agreed it would take a miracle for her to survive.
Mary weighed a mere 1 pound, 5 ounces at birth. She was 11 inches long; smaller than a Barbie doll. Her eyes were fused shut. Her hands and feet were the size of my smallest fingernail.
And it wasnt long before her condition worsened. Her breathing became more labored. Her weight dropped to 1 pound 2 ounces. All of the dozens of machines and medicines that were barely keeping her alive were slowly losing the battle.
She had surgery to repair a leaky valve on her heart her only chance, even though doctors feared she wouldnt survive the operation.
Somehow she pulled through and, for a while, was improving. Then came another turn for the worse. At one point, a doctor told us there was nothing more they could do. He said my daughter had maybe a day to live.
Another doctor, though, told us there was once last hope an experimental steroid treatment that offered only a remote chance of success, and at great cost. There would be a trade-off, we were warned. She might be blind or deaf, or severely brain-damaged. Even in the unlikely event Mary survived, we were told, odds were shed never live anything resembling a normal life.
Today, my daughter is 11, in the sixth grade and, except for the unfortunate fact that she looks a lot like her dad, is pretty much like any other kid.
I look at her, and I dont have to wonder. I know.
Miracles are real.
Be that as it may, I DO believe in miracles. In 1988 I had triple bypass surgery. Early in 2001 my bypasses shut down. The doctors are puzzled as to why I am still alive.
I know my stupidity is about to show, but if 55% is the maximum performance possible, then where do they get the 100%? Maybe they need to lower the bar and re-assign the 100% level to reality.
Erica was born on the day of the big snow here in NC...January 24, 2000. She was non respondent at birth and had an odd color to her. She improved "enough" to be sent home where she did not thrive. She could not keep breast milk down and her stomach was constantly upset. A week after coming home she "died" . Her mother had to perform CPR on this tiny baby all the way to the hospital. When they arrived she was placed on a ventilator.
After many tests it was confirmed that Erica was born with menengitis. She lost the frontal left lobe of her brain as a result. Dr's gave no hope of her ever being able to speak and said that she would be developmentally delayed. Severely so.
Today, Erica is a bright and TALKATIVE almost 3 year old. She converses with others with outstanding clarity in her words. She loves to draw and write. She is beginning to learn to read. Her neurologist in Chapel Hill said ( we have written documentation ) that if he did not know, for a fact, that the MRI pics he has were of her he would swear that this child is NOT the same kid whose pics he has.
One can say all day long that she is not a miracle but I will believe otherwise forever. The moment we heard of her being taken to the hospital and put on a ventilator we hit our knees. God is able!
There are also bigger ones -- I've got several "touched by God" experiences, as have a number of people I know. My personal favorite is this one:
I was driving along a pretty full freeway one day. I was in the left lane. Traffic was going about 70, when some bozo pulling trailer-full of junk decides to pull onto the freeway at about 25 mph. He cut off a couple of lanes of traffic. The other cars began to skate around, and dodge to the left. It became obvious that I was about to be squashed onto the construction barrier just to my left. There was almost no shoulder, and certainly no room for a car. I was going to be in a nasty wreck, and there was nothing I could do about it.
Just before the wreck was going to happen, the construction barrier ended, revealing a "spare lane," into which I swerved, and avoided the accident. The "spare lane" ended within about 1000 feet, but it was enough: I was able to avoid the wreck.
Not too long after, I drove that way again. I was all set to show the "spare lane" to my family, but it wasn't there, and there was no indication that it had ever been there.
(As it happens, at the exact time this occurred, my wife and kids had decided to pray for me to have a safe trip....)
That is absolutely unbelievable!! Definitely a story for the PAX series - That's A Miracle. God AND your Guardian Angel were watching over you at that moment. Thank you for sharing this wonderful story.
Only skeptics who need to experience it first hand would make such a ridiculous comment. Miracles are part of our daily lives and your story is living proof of the power of faith and prayer.
My mother went into the hospital for a broken hip. She HATED going to the doctor, and never had checkups for over 10 years. They gave her a full workup. They found evidence of multiple heart attacks, as well as a fairly large tumor in her brain.
Her name and condition hit the prayer lists in every church that her numerous children belonged to. At the next scan, there was absolutely NO tumor whatsoever. None. Praise the Lord.
The second one (of many that I have experienced, though this one was really profound as I was being refined by God):
My stepson got into drugs, and started stealing to pay for his habit. We found out about it after his wife called to say that he had stolen her sister's checkbook, and was writing checks all over the place, buying goods, then hocking them for drugs. We had to get him into a rehab, and fast.
We found one in Northern Alabama that was Christian-based, and had a high-success rate. We enrolled him, even though I had no means of paying for it at the time.
Out of the BLUE, my sister sent me a check, as she had experienced a phenomenal year in the market and wanted to share her wealth with her siblings. So, there! I now had the money to pay for his rehab. I also could pay for the $1,000 in bounced checks from his drug spree.
Feeling very proud of myself, I bragged back to my sister, whom had just given me the check, that I was able to use it -- ALL of it -- to help out my stepson. Humility was nowhere to be found in me -- I was proud, and lied as well, by telling her that it cost me more than it had from her gift to help him out.
So, I actually spent a bit over $1,000 and claimed to have spent her entire check she sent on helping him.
In the meantime, I planned on what I was going to do with the rest of the money she sent me.
I spent the remainder of the money. Just buying stuff.
The following week, I got notification from 5 other stores that he had in fact bounced checks there also, and "they don't know why they couldn't find them when I called previously."
I received the checks, and tallied the amounts.
Care to guess how much they were for?
They totalled the EXACT AMOUNT that I had left over before I spent it -- the DIFFERENCE between what I had SAID to my sister and what I ACTUALLY spent. To the Penny
I had asked God to refine me, to give me the wisdom to be the person He wants me to be. God followed through, even though I had not. It was a PERFECT reminder that God is present, and will work in your life if you invite Him.
People that do not believe will never have the chance to know what I know, and that is a shame. Faith is required, and the first step is the hardest, but God is Faithful -- even when we aren't.
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