Svana

Svana is nearly 2 months old now, I think. She “should” be dead. She had many things wrong with her. Her esophagus went nowhere. Fluid leaking into the cavity around her lungs caused them to collapse. Other issues led to her being on a machine to “replace” her heart as well as her lungs. She had no rectum.

When she was about 2 or 3 days old, some men from the church her grandfather pastors gathered around and prayed for her. That evening, she had a bowel movement. Her grandfather said, “I don’t care if I am a Christian and a pastor – the first doctor who suggests that the original diagnosis (no rectum) was a mistake gets my fist in his face.” The issue with her lungs was up and down. She had surgery to connect her esophagus where it belonged. She has had other surgeries; I don’t know the details of all of them.

But while she was on the breathing machine & heart machine, there came a point where the doctors said, “She’s used up all her reserve. She has nothing left to fight with.” Her grandfather said, “She may not have any reserve, but we have – in God.”

The next thing we knew, Svana started improving. The lung machine was removed and she was put on a ventilator. Soon that was removed, as well as the heart machine. Her parents were able to hold her for the first time. The last I heard, they were even able to dress her. Interesting, isn’t it, that she has been improving steadily ever since the doctors said she had no more reserve?

Her grandfather is the pastor of the Brookville, PA, Assemblies of God Church; her great-grandparents are retired Nazarene missionaries.