One year ago, Sept 10, 2018, an accident occurred on our farm that allowed us to be a witness of God’s grace and healing power manifest before our eyes. As hard as it is to sit and write this down, there is not a day that goes by that I don’t thank our Heavenly Father for what he did for our family.
It was a typical Monday evening, kids were playing in the yard, a little six-year-old cousin was over playing with our son Silas who was also six at the time. His mother and I were visiting when the little cousin came over and started crying and said, “Silas has blood on him.” Apparently our very large farm shop door had come down on him. We immediately ran to our shop where the boys had been playing and found Silas slumped over in a battery-powered truck. He was not conscious, his head was a dark purple, and blood was running out of his nose and mouth. When I saw him, I immediately thought he was already dead. I began calling out to Jesus as I picked him up in my arms and ran for our house, calling for my husband. Halfway to the house, I heard a ragged breath and realized he was still alive. We put him in our vehicle, called 911, and began the drive to meet the ambulance. We live in a very rural area, and the hospital in Prince Albert is about 35 miles away. It was probably the longest 30 minutes of my life. I prayed for God to keep him alive as he continued to breathe raggedly. He never regained consciousness but did move his legs some. We met the ambulance, and they did a quick assessment before loading him and continuing.
At this point when they checked his eyes, his pupils were open and not responding. At the hospital, they immediately intubated him, which was difficult due to the swelling in his throat. They did a CAT scan and stabilized him enough to move him to a larger center. His eyes had begun to react sluggishly, which caused the nurse to comment that we must be a praying people. We headed on to a larger center in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. We were met by a trauma team of about twenty people who all began to work on him, attach every type of tube imaginable, begin all sorts of tests. He was kept in an unconscious state due to the tube down his throat. A neurosurgeon was waiting for us, planning to do surgery yet that night, but much to the medical staff's surprise, the CAT scan showed there was no bleeding on his brain and no surgery required at this point, thanks be to God. Once he was assessed and stabilized, he was moved to Pediatric ICU where a team hovered over him all night long. I was grateful to God for the medical people He placed in our path to help us.
At this point, he was to be kept in this unconscious state with a ventilator breathing for him so his brain could rest and heal. The neurosurgeon talked to us about the concern for brain damage at this time, not something any parent wants to hear. Through all this, we clung to the words of our prophet and looked past the circumstances to a perfectly healthy boy at the end of the road.
We truly felt the prayers of the brothers and sisters around the world and have been so thankful for each one you! Each day we saw the results of God's Word and your prayers coming to pass in our little boy's body.
Don't fuss about it. When you're thoroughly convinced, that's it. Just like anyone, any faith, any way. "Faith cometh by hearing." If you can stand here, no matter what the doctor says is wrong with you! Which, the man has give you the diagnosis of the cases, and probably knows just what he's talking about, as far as his instruments and knowledge will permit him to know, but he says there is nothing left but death. But, you pray, and standing yonder in the future you can see a well man or woman standing there. Yes, that's it. And that's just it. They'll walk right into that just as certain as anything, because you believe it. God has spoke it. You know it's so.
Due to the brain injury, he was unable to maintain body temperature or blood sugar on his own and needed to be constantly monitored. After a couple of days, his body began to work again and control his functions by himself normally. This was one of the many miracles. He was still on a ventilator, but one day we heard the medical staff excitedly talking about him “triggering.” Since we didn’t’ know if this was a good or bad thing, we quickly asked what it meant? They explained that it was good, as he was trying to breathe on his own around the ventilator. Every time he breathed on his own a little pink triangle, (which we noticed looked just like the "press play" symbol) would appear on the machines! Another miracle!
Finally, after only three or four days, they made the decision to turn the ventilator off and see if he could do it on his own. They left the machine in place as a precaution for that first night, but he didn’t use it once all night, and they were able to remove it the next day. At this point, they began to back off drugs and allow him to wake up on his own, which took a couple of days due to the large amounts of drugs in his little body. It was so wonderful to see his eyes open again! He was transferred back to our local hospital, where he continued to improve daily in leaps and bounds. They helped him slowly take one step at a time with a walker, and by the next day, he could run down the halls and hop on one foot. We saw God come on the scene in so many big and little ways, and ALL glory and praise is due Him. His Word was such a comfort and faith builder, and we clung to it. The doctor told us he had no damage to his brain, and he saw nothing but a perfectly restored boy. Some of the staff refer to him as the “miracle boy,” and others just tell us we were lucky, but we give ALL praise to our precious Lord Jesus who held our hands every step of the way, gave us His faith in His Word, and gave us back that perfectly well boy.