We serve a MIGHTY GOD!!!!

I just have to share with you what an AWESOME God we serve! He has shown my family His miraculous power this week – in a BIG WAY! Let me share the story with you…

My cousin Michael is 19 years old and a great, great kid. He graduated as valedictorian from his high school in 2006 and has been attending Wright State with a FULL RIDE scholarship (books, living expenses, everything included). He is a full-time student and also works 2 part-time jobs. Because he is so smart and pushes himself so much, this fall he would be starting as a Junior (his 2nd year in school). He is just a good, good kid!

He was at a church playing basketball with his buddies from high school on Sunday night. At about 10:30, he was running down the court and just collapsed. Literally, in mid-run, just collapsed. His heart stopped. Fortunately, there was a “friend-of-a friend” who was in the prayer room of the church who was a lifeguard and knew CPR. She immediately began working on him and did not stop until the paramedics came and took over. (Come to find out later…she was going to leave the church about 20 minutes prior to this, but just decided to go hang out in the prayer room instead). When the paramedics got there, they did detect a heartbeat, but it wasn’t his. It was what she had created by working on him for so long. They had to use the paddles on him 3 times in order to get his heart to start beating on his own. They put a ventilator in and had him on life-support to transport him to the hospital.

Once in the hospital, they told his parents that he had actually died and his brain had been deprived of oxygen for the 17 – 20 minutes that his heart had stopped beating. They told my aunt and uncle to prepare for him to die (they had revived him at this point). So, as any scared parents would do, they stayed by his side praying and hoping for the best. Two hours later, Michael woke up. It was truly a miracle and although the doctors hesitate to use that terminology, they were amazed. They then instructed my aunt and uncle that although it appeared that Michael might survive, they needed to prepare for the fact that brain damage was inevitable because his brain had been without oxygen for so long. Again, as any scared parents would do, they stayed by his side praying and hoping for the best.

Michael was able to open his eyes a few times, but could see nothing. He was incoherent and at times, thrashing to pull out his IV – not understanding what was going on. I went in to see him at about 9:30 am and he tried to open his eyes to look at me, but they just kept rolling back in his head. He was white and just looked sickly. It was a very hard sight to see.

Not even three hours later, Michael was sitting up in bed – recognizing – SEEING – his Dad, the nurse and how many fingers she had up and joking with my Dad about how cute the nurse was! PRAISE THE LORD!!!!

There were times after this that he “relapsed” and couldn’t tell who some people were or how many fingers the nurse held up, but we were holding out hope that this was because he had “rattled his brain” when he fell not due to brain damage.

Last night, after many hours of tests and discussions, the neurologist came into the room and told my aunt and uncle that Michael’s brain is “beautiful and perfectly undamaged”. PRAISE THE LORD!!!! They said that they see no reason that Michael would not fully recuperate and live a “normal – although perhaps less physical” life.

So, we still need your prayers. They are in the process (as we speak) of moving him to a better hospital where a team of heart specialists can analyze all of the data to diagnose exactly what happened and how to treat it to prevent it from happening again. But with modern medicine, that is more of a “how”…not an “if”. They do think it was a birth defect that stems from a problem with the electrical chamber of his heart. If that is the case, they will do surgery to implant a defibulator on his heart that would “kick-in” if his heart were to just stop again. From what I hear, that is a pretty normal operation.

So, PRAISE THE LORD. God is so good. He is in control even when we don’t feel like He is. He is so amazing! Please pray for this family and continued strength. His mom (my aunt) has her own set of numerous health problems (with chronic diabetes) and is really not doing well. But GOD IS GOOD and HE IS IN CONTROL! Thank you for praising HIS NAME with us!!!!!