Doctors at a hospital in Missouri said 14-year-old John Smith, who had been declared dead for over an hour, made a miraculous recovery when his heart started to beat again after his mother started to pray loudly. Smith was one of the three boys that fell through the ice in Lake Sainte Louise and had been trapped underneath for at least 15 minutes before rescuers reached the spot.
Despite being found with no pulse, Smith was taken to the hospital immediately, where staff performed CPR on him for 27 minutes and treated his companions for hypothermia.
“He was dead for 45 minutes,” said Kent Sutterer. “There was a very poor chance of survival.”
Reportedly, Smith’s mother started to pray loudly at this point when doctors called her in to inform her of her son’s situation.
“I don't remember what all I said. But I remember, ‘Holy God, please send your Holy Spirit to save my son.’ All of a sudden I heard them saying, ‘We got a pulse, we got a pulse,’” said Smith’s mother Joyce.
According to Sutterer, Smith’s pulse returned within a minute or two of his mother beginning to pray.
In an attempt to explain what happened, Sutterer later wrote, “His heart was jump-started by the Holy Spirit listening to the request of his praying mother.”
Another doctor at the hospital described the incident as a bona fide miracle.
Smith’s brain has been functioning normally ever since and he is now at home, talking and walking as usual. He is undergoing physical therapy however to regain strength in his arms.
“After listening to what the paramedics and doctors said I'm pretty surprised at the outcome,” Smith said.
Many have questioned if the lake’s icy temperature helped preserve Smith’s brain function.
Pediatric intensivist Garrett at SSM Cardinal Glennon answered that question with both a yes and a no, explaining that freezing one’s body does help preserve the brain but causes damage to the heart.
“However, it really shouldn't have worked in John's case,” said Garrett, “because the lake water’s temperature was only 40 degrees. While John's body dropped to 88 degrees, it was not lowered in a controlled setting. Usually you'd like it to be colder and you'd like the victim to be smaller actually because what you really need to have happen is for the brain to get cold before the blood flow stops to the brain. So, for John's brain to have gotten cold to be protected from the lack of blood flow and the lack of oxygen really is a miracle in itself.”
Photo Credits: Daily Mail
