By Magaly

Little did I know that on December 17, 2001, an event would take place that would turn my and my mother’s world upside down. I entered my apartment and I immediately called my mother, Maria, to tell her I was going to take a shower and cook a meal for both of us. She replied, "Magaly, I have felt like death was coming for me the whole day."

I ignored her statement and told her I would be up as soon as possible (we live in a rented 2 family house).

At exactly 9:35 p.m., my mother suffered a massive cerebral hemorrhage. She managed to call me on the phone screaming, "Come upstairs, I am sick. I have intense pain in my head and I feel heat and nausea."

I ran upstairs as fast as I could. Mother was screaming, as she held her head in pain. I screamed louder than her saying, "Make your peace with God." She immediately made the prayer of repentance. I called the ambulance and she was rushed to St. Claire’s Hospital. She was in such pain she needed five syringes of morphine. She lost all consciousness. The doctors did not know whether lost of consciousness was due to the morphine or to her neurological state. They gave her something to counteract the possible morphine reaction. She woke up briefly, said some gibberish, and went back into a coma. That was the first of three comas that my mother would experience.

She was transferred to Ellis Hospital. A head CT Scan showed a massive cerebral hemorrhage. She went into a stage 4 coma. The neurosurgeon told me "Your mother is dying. People in the stage of coma such as your mother’s rarely come out of it, they usually die on the spot."

The doctor said my mother’s bleeding was not caused by an aneurysm or a stroke, nor by high blood pressure. It was a freak accident of nature and unexplainable, therefore nothing could be done for her.

My mother was in a coma nearly two weeks. I believe in a Living and Merciful God so I accepted the situation with calmness.

One day a doctor took me aside and said, "You do not seem to understand, your mother is dying and you are setting yourself up for a big disappointment by not accepting reality. I am surprised she is still alive and in a coma, because she should not have survived on December 17, 2001."

Later on, I met a neurosurgeon in my mother’s room and again was told nothing could be done for my mother-she was dying. I looked at this neurosurgeon who was oozing intelligence, placed my hand on his shoulder, and said, "I thank you very much for your honesty, but you are just a man who studied medicine. I will wait and see what my God does." He stared at me in disbelief.

I used to stand at the doorway of my mother’s room and verbally apply the blood of Jesus Christ to the doorway, windows ceiling, and floor. Then I would say out loud, "Death, you have no authority over my mother, she is covered and protected by the Blood of Jesus Christ, and you can not come into this room in any way, shape or form."

During Mom’s first coma, I gathered her grandchildren-boys ages nine and seven. I told them we three were going before God to ask that Grand mom live, not die. I also made sure they understood God and God alone knew what was best for Grand mom, and God knew better than the three of us.

The children agreed to the terms and each made his request before God, fully accepting His decision, whether it was that she would live or go to heaven.

Because I am human, there were times my sorrows were so great as I kept vigil over my mother, that all I could say was as a prayer was "Jesus" and "I apply all that Jesus is over my mother."

On the same floor Mom was on, just to the right of the elevator, there was a security door, which separated the main hospital wing from the Ellis Nursing Home unit. This was the only nursing home in which I would every have considered admitting her.

Many times, when no one was watching, I would lean on the security door in tears and crying, with my body and hands touching the door, and ask God to make a bed available for Mom.

Sometimes, without intending to, I would trigger the alarm on the door and could hear steps coming to the door from inside the nursing home. They thought someone was trying to get out, but that wasn’t it. It was me trying to get in.

Mom was still in her first coma when another doctor pulled me aside from the elevator and told me: "You don’t seem to understand or accepting that your mother is dying. You are setting yourself up for a big disappointment."

Again, I repeated the same words, "Thank you very much for your honesty but I will wait and see what my God does."

During the time my mother was in coma, I continued to write to inmates in the prison ministry. One day, an inmate I was writing to called me and said, "No matter what doctors say about your mother, your mother’s life is totally in God’s hands. God and God alone decides if she stays of if she goes."

The nurses would frequently ask, "Who do you write to so much?" I would answer "To inmates who need Jesus Christ." I would also say to God, "I am taking care of your inmates, your children, please take care of my mother."

During that painful time, I encountered many good doctors, nurses, and family members of other patients. My mother’s private doctor was always there with a word of comfort and a prayer on her lips. There was a Chaplain who prayed, fasted, and interceded before God of my mother daily. My mother’s private doctor and the Chaplain believe in miracles just as I do.

A strange thing began to happen while my mother was still in her first coma. She began to react to only my voice. The doctors would say, "Maria, squeeze my hand or move you feet." She would not respond. Then I would tell her, "Squeeze my hand or move your feet," and she would do it. I would be talking to the doctor, stop and ask my mother, "Right, Mom?" She would nod her head gently and the doctor would be surprised because such was not normal for a person in a coma.

My mother would react only to my voice.

One day, as I got off the elevator to go to my mother’s room, one of the doctors again took me aside and for the third time told me, "Your mother is dying."

I repeated my words, "Thank very much for your honesty but I will wait and see what my God does."

I walked straight into my mother’s room. Her eyes were open wide as saucers and she said, "Magaly, where were you and why am I here?" I told my mother, "Hold that thought."

I ran to the nurse’s station and said to the same doctor who just told me my mother was dying and I needed to accept it, "Doctor, Mom is awake and asking good coherent questions."

The doctor looked at me with disbelief, "That cannot be." He didn’t believe me so I told him to go see for himself. He did.

His exact words to my mother were, "Maria, you are awake and talking!" My mother answered, "Sure, take everything off and give me some food. I am hungry and I want to go home."

To the doctor’s amazement, my mother spoke clearly and coherently. As the doctor stood between my mother’s bed and the window he threw his arms up in the air and said, "This is a miracle!"

I attempted to tell the nurses in the hallway what had happened but as soon as I opened my mouth, to say, "Mom’s awake," most of them said, "I have to see it with my own eyes!"

The news spread like fire and even the people who clean the room came to see the miracle. Although Mom was awake she could not move her body.

A short time later, she went into her second "death like sleep" coma. Again several doctors told me she was dying. She was not reacting to any stimulus, and her pupils were fixed. They told me, We are sorry, she is dying, her body is shutting down."

Again, I said, "Thank you very much for your honesty but I will wait and see what my God does."

A week later my mother came out of her second "death like sleep" coma.

Many people, after experiencing an aneurysm or a cerebral hemorrhage, forget how to swallow, so a feeding tube was inserted into my mother’s nose as a means of nourishing her body.

One day, I walked into her room and saw she had pulled the feeding tube out of her nose, allowing some of the food liquid to get into her lungs. That caused an infection and high fever. She lost all consciousness and went into her third and last "death like sleep" coma for three days.

One of the nurses told me, "she is in God’s hands," (I thing they finally got my point and message.) When the medical staff uses that phrase, you know you are in trouble. Again, I said, "Thank you very for your honesty, but I will wait and see what my God does."

Through the Grace of God she came out of that one also. After she had been in the hospital almost a month, the doctors again inserted a feeding tube, this time into her belly. That was the only way to nourish her body until she could learn how to swallow again and eat like a normal person.

Somehow she caught an infection where the feeding tube was inserted and became septic. They had to remove the feeding tube and do surgery to remove part of mom’s stomach and the abscessed abdominal wall.

Mom had a gaping hole slightly larger than a half dollar where the feeding tube had been and another straight incision about five inches where they had to cut to do surgery to get to her stomach, where there was another hole.

Because the two gaping holes had to heal from inside out, the stitches were inside the belly and not on the top. Another feeding tube was inserted and the doctors said they mighty have to remove that one and insert another, hence another gaping hole. I asked the doctor, "Are you a gopher? I won’t allow you to make another hole in her belly," and they didn’t.

At one point in my mother’s hospital stay, while she was asleep, she "coughed." I was uncomfortable with the sound. I asked mom’s doctor to order x-rays, not the following day, but that same night. She was kind enough to order them immediately. They showed she had pneumonia, and the doctors treated her immediately with antibiotics.

During the two months she was hospitalized, I watched and kept vigil over her like a hawk. For two month’ I slept in a chair in an upright position or in a hospital barco chair at my mother’s bedside.

In preparation for my mother’s discharge from the hospital, I had a meeting with the discharge planner, requesting home nursing assistance when Mom got home.

They turned me down with no justification. The woman representing the agency asked me many questions but the bottom line was they had no intention whatsoever of offer me any services. That woman made the mistake of "judging a book by its cover."

I leaned as close as I could to her face and said, "This is not the Nuremberg Trial nor the Inquisition. Are you going to help me or not?"

She responded, "No." I got up and again, leaned as close to her face as I could, and said, "Before you agency existed, people took care of their own." Then I said, "Do not confuse my white hair and my severe obesity with stupidity. On my worst day I am brighter than you; do not set your limitations on me. Meeting terminated." Then I walked out.

With a lot of persuasion another nursing agency offered its services to me.

After being admitted to the hospital on December 17, 2001, my mother was at last discharged on February 20, 2002. At last we were going home. The nurse who help with the discharge papers said to me, "We still cannot figure out how you mother is still alive, it doesn’t make any sense. She should have died on December 17, 2001."

Finally we came home. There we were-no doctors, nurses or aides-just me and my 69-year-old handicapped infant mother with two gaping holes and a feeding tube in her belly.

Through tears I cried to God, "Please give me strength and health to care for my mother."

Mom’s two gaping holes healed in less than two months after she got home. It was an amazing feat, because Mom had been a diabetic for 37 years and wounds usually don’t heal rapidly in such people.

A few weeks later she was given a "swallow" test at Ellis Hospital and passed it. Normally, after passing that test, people are in transition back to eating, by having only puree food, but Mom came straight from the hospital and ate regular food. She was still not able walk, sit, stand, or do anything. She was like a big infant, with pampers in essence a vegetable.

I remember the very first day the visiting nurse came. As she opened the downstairs door and came up a few steps, I told her, "If you are coming to tell me what I cannot accomplish with my mother, turn around and leave."

Two therapists were sent to care for my mother. Two months later the said, "There is nothing we can do for your mother, she is not reacting." One therapist told me my mother would never walk and said the only way I would be able to get her out of bed would be with a machine.

She asked my mother, "Maria, what do you want to do?" My mother said, "I want to go up and down the stairs and I want to walk." The therapist replied, "You are asking too much. How about just getting from the bed to the wheelchair."

Then I had a wonderful conversation with "Ms. Doubting Thomas." I said, "My mother will walk and make a liar out of all of you."

The therapist said, "Well, I guess if I were you, I would be grasping at straws too."

I replied, "My straws have names: Hope and Faith in the Living God." The therapist replied, "Say and believe whatever you need to help you cope. I have been a therapist for 30 years and I have yet to see a miracle."

I pointed to a large calendar on the dining room table and said, "Put your name and phone number on the calendar and I will call you when the miracle happens."

The therapist thought I was not dealing with reality. She proceeded to explain to me that for every one week that you are immobile in a bed you need one to two months of intensive therapy, just to be able to hold your weight standing. That was besides trying to walk.

Again she said, "You mother will never walk again. Without the intensive therapy it will be impossible to walk, especially since your mother has been immobile almost like a vegetable for five month."

The two therapists left, but Jesus Christ stayed with me. For about two months I literally moved my mother’s arms and legs so her muscles would not shrink. Several times my mother had been turned down be "Sunnyview Hospital & Rehabilitation," because of her physical state.

One day, as I was washing her in bed, she raised her right leg, allegedly the weak side of her immobile body. I was shocked! I said, "Mom, roll over." And she did by herself.

I broke down and cried, praising the Lord. Then I said to her, "Mom, pretend there is a fire, and get out of the bed." She slowly sat up leaning like a melted ice cream cone on a hot day.

I called mom’s private physician who came to witness what mom could do. The doctor was so touched by what she saw that her eyes got teary. Mom’s private physician said, "We need to get mom to inpatient rehabilitation."

To avoid another denial from Sunnyview Hospital, the doctor videotaped Mom to document her body movement and submitted it to Sunnyview Hospital. We had evidence that Mom was truly eligible for Rehabilitation.

On May 28, 2002, my mother was finally admitted to Sunnyview Hospital. Seven days went by and nothing happened. On the eighth day I said, "Mom you have to walk. If anything happens to me you will get put in a nursing home."

She stared at me and didn’t say a word as she went in for therapy. Later someone came into the room and told me they saw my mother standing and walking. When the aide returned my mother therapy, she was very excited and kept telling my mother, "Tell her, tell your daughter what you did!"

My mother told me she had stood up and walked. It was confirmed officially: for the first time, after five months of immobility, mom had walked 18 feet like a baby. She was wobbly, but walked it at the parallel bars.

Three days later she was given a walker. Within the week she was slowly walking 250 feet with the walker by herself. I guess God decided to bypass the "intensive Therapy" part.

During the week that followed, my mother was nicknamed the "Miracle Woman," I told the therapist I wanted her to be put on the stairs.

"Oh, she cannot do stairs," replied the therapist.

I quickly shot back to her, "And I was told she would never walk again, and she is walking isn’t she?" My mother attempted climbing the stairs but was not able to do it for the moment. My mother was discharged from Sunnyview Hospital on June 11, 2002.

God is so Merciful and Gracious. I am so grateful to Him that my mother can move around with her walker and be like a normal human being. She could even eat and swallow like other people. On September 18, my mother very carefully walked down the stairs, from the second floor to the front porch of the house. Again, very carefully she went down the stairs on October 8.

There is power in the name of Jesus Christ. There is power in prayer and intercession. My mother is living proof. Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior is so wonderful and merciful toward His children. By the Grace of God she is no longer that lifeless body in a bed, unable to take care of her most basic needs.

Although my mother currently has dementia, and needs supervision, she has a meaningful interaction with her surrounding.

She is able to get in and out of bed by herself slowly. She walks slowly without her walker. She sits herself in the living room to watch TV. She goes to the kitchen and sits herself at the table and feeds herself. She is able to partially bathe herself. She even shocks people by answering the door. She answers the phone and people think they have the wrong number.

To look at my mother today, there is no indication she was so near death and had suffered such a traumatic experience in her life.

God is so wonderful He even put two special "Angels" (ambulance attendants) who extended kindness toward my mother and me when she would have to be taken to the emergency room and after she would be discharged from the hospital.

God’s grace, and mercy, and acts of kindness from strangers made the unbearable bearable. There was only one nursing home in which I would have considered placing my mother. I had cried before God to make a bed available at Ellis Nursing Home for her. But God was writing a "rain check" for me that said, "beds out of stock, will give resurrection power to your mother instead."

There are no words in the dictionary, or in the entire world, to express my deepest gratitude for the Lord’s grace and mercy toward my mother, other than by sharing this wonderful testimony of the "Power of Faith, Prayer and Intercession" with you.

God Bless You,

P.S. Death may use the "delete" button on earth, but God presses the "undo" button in Heaven.

Addendum:

"Quietly, while in her sleep on Wednesday, January 26th, 2005, at 4:19 P.M. at home, at the age of 73, my mother went to be with her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ."

  The Greatest Treasure In The World

    There is no greater and more valuable treasure in the world than knowing and accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. God's Holy Bible says: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you. . . " Jeremiah 1:5.

    Jesus Christ died at the Cross of Calvary to have the authority and power to forgive all your sins and to give you eternal life with Him. God's Holy Word in the Bible says: "For God so loved the world, that he gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16.

    There are only two paths that man can choose from: Jesus Christ and Heaven, or Satan and Hell. Jesus Christ paid with His very life the price to have the authority and power to give you forgiveness of all your sins and to be able to give you eternal life in Him. Jesus Christ wants to bless your life with many wonderful blessings that you can not imagine.

    "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." 2 Corinthians 6:2

    "Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts." Hebrews 4:7-8a

    "But as it is written: 'Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.' "
        1 Corinthians 2:9

    Choose well. Once your soul leaves your mortal body, there is no changing of destination. Where and with whom will you spend eternity?

                                                                                                                                  God Bless you,

                                                                                                                                       Magaly

The Appointment

    There is an appointment that all mankind must keep whether they want to or not. There is no choosing or canceling of that appointment with the usual 24 hour in advance.

    What is that appointment? That appointment, my dear friend, is when we stand before God on Judgment Day! One would think that appointment would be with death, but the truth is some will be alive when our Lord Jesus Christ comes to do and bring judgment and rewards for both the living and the dead that have been resurrected. No one will escape that appointment.

    What will be judged on that day? Every single action, thought, act and deed that you have done or committed whether good or bad in your entire life, from birth until Judgment Day.

    You must stand before an all knowing God. A God of total Holiness, and because of that Holiness, He must judge anything and everything not under the Cross - and the Blood of Jesus Christ His Son as sin.

    Imagine for you to fully understand that when it is too late for "The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." - Romans 6:23

    To also fully realize that all your so-called good actions as seen and judge by yourself and fellow men are not enough to qualify you for Heaven. The Holy Bible, which is the Word of God, says: "But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are as filthy rags. . . " - Isaiah 64:6

    What can we do? The Holy Bible says: "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." - Isaiah 1:8

    Today Jesus Christ is your Public Defender, but on that day, He is your Judge. It will be to late to repent before God on Judgment Day. There will be no plea bargain, no excuses. The only verdict is guilty. The only sentence is eternal damnation for eternity in the fires of hell. Any sin not dealt at the Cross and under the Blood of Jesus will be an indictment against you.  

    Only One person can forgive or absolve you of your sins and that is the One that died at the Cross - of Calvary - Jesus Christ. No one in heaven or earth outside of Him can redeem you from your sins.

    Sins can not be tucked away with excuses, God demands that our sins be dealt with at the Cross - and under the Blood of Jesus Christ. The Holy Bible says: "Call upon me while I am near. . . " - Isaiah 55:6. Can you hear Him calling you?

    The Holy Bible, the Word of God, also says: "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." - Revelation 3:20. Can you not hear him knocking at your heart or conscience?

    Can you not see and understand that it was you that were supposed to be crucified on that cross instead of Jesus Christ? Jesus Christ was sinless but He took your place on that middle Cross.

    He paid the penalty for your sin and my sin. Can you not see the love of God toward you in: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." "For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved." - John 3:16, 17

    Can you not hear His knocking at your heart? Can you not hear Him calling you? Can you not see the love of God toward you? Do you not realize the weight and the consequences of your sins?

    Do you not see the need to repent before a Holy God that offered His beloved Son to die in your place to give you forgiveness of your sins and to give you eternal life in Him? Why not call upon Him so that you may receive grace and mercy while there is still time?

    "For whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved." - Romans 10:13

    Yes, my friend, there is an appointment that we must all keep but remember eternal hell does not need to be your final destination. Where and with whom will you spend eternity with?

                                                                                                                                                             Magaly