Vicky

*

by Holly Michael, author, editor, and Bishop’s wife, serving God through writing.

“I want to put on a nice dress and go dancing,” Vicky said.

“You can’t.” I sighed, patted her hand, and repeated the same words I’d said earlier. “You’re in the Intensive Care Unit.”

Vicky, a friend my age, was often disorientated upon waking. She’d had heart failure, lung failure, and liver failure. Taken off life support just a few days earlier, she wasn’t expected to survive when they removed the breathing tube. But she did. The medical staff was keeping her alive, because, in a lucid moment, with a chaplain present, Vicky said she wanted to live. Now, she wanted to go dancing.

“If not dancing, can I just go outside for a nice lunch? Maybe some tea?”

“You’re not strong enough,” I said, “Your heart is too weak.”

Vicky bargained down to the possibility of being lifted into a wheelchair and rolled outside so she could feel the sun on her face.  “Please,” she whispered. “I’m afraid I’ll die here.”

“I’ll ask,” I said, glad for an excuse to step away so that I could release the tears I’d been holding back. I  stepped up to the nurse’s station and relayed Vicky’s request.

The nurse shook her head. “She won’t survive it,” she said. “Not possible. ” The nurse explained that Vicky’s best outlook was hospice care, transported by ambulance sometime in the near future.

Another day and with Vicky still surviving, the medical staff considered the possibility of long term nursing care, but insisted she had zero chance of recovery. Her heart was too damaged, pumping at only 5% ejection fraction, her liver in bad shape, along with other medical complications.

I spoke to Jesus about Vicky.  “She just wants to have the sun on her face, breathe in fresh air. Please don’t let her be stuck in a nursing home.”

Vicky remained in a confused state most of the time, especially upon waking. I continued, along with others, to pray for her complete healing. I specifically asked the Good Shepherd not to allow her stray on the mountainside alone and confused, but to call to her, bind her wounds, heal her, and bring her to green pastures.

As the days past, Vicky continued to improve, breathing on her own, doing well without medications for low blood pressure, stats normal, less confusion. I asked the doctors and nurses if the changes meant a change in her prognosis. They all concurred that she was terminal.

The next day, Vicky’s thoughts were very clear and she appeared healthier.  The doctor performed a heart scan. When the nurse came in with the results, I prayed, “Please Lord, let there be an improvement, enough for her to get outside to feel the sun on her face.”

“Her heart is normal,” the nurse said.

My hands flew to my mouth. Tears filled my eyes. The medical staff in the ICU was in complete shock. The doctors didn’t have answers. One doctor said, “God gave her a heart transplant. We did nothing.”

We discovered her liver was also normal. Vicky’s situation was declared miraculous by most everyone.  One doctor gave her condition a medical name, but the head cardiologist refuted it. He wanted to keep her in the hospital for further testing to understand what had happened. Vicky knew. I knew. Miracle. Vicky didn’t want to be a guinea pig. She wanted to go home.

Now, just weeks after she entered the hospital with heart failure, Vicky is getting stronger every day. A few days ago, I sat on a bench with her in Boulder, Colorado, up on the mountaintop, admiring an autumn view of yellow aspens popping out in the midst of evergreens. We took in deep piney scents and felt the sun our faces.

I said, “You only hoped to see the view from the outside the hospital doors and they said it was impossible.”

“I know,” Vicky said.

“For nothing is impossible with God.”  (Luke 1:37)

I imagined God smiling at the two of us, saying, “My plans are always bigger and better than anything you can imagine.”

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. (Jeremiah 29:11)

What more can I say but to quote the psalmist, “Psalm 9:1 “I will praise You, O LORD, with my whole heart; I will tell of all Your marvelous works.” (NKJV).  

I’m so glad to be sharing this miracle story and declaring the Lord’s marvelous works.