Whether you believe miracles are an act of God or an incredible random act of the universe, you’ve got to admit they do make you wonder.
The following article is an account of some of the most fascinating real life medical miracles that may leave you in awe (or even more skeptical of the media).
Imagine falling from a 47-story building down to the concrete while on the job window washing.
This tragic incident happened to 37-year-old Alcides Moreno as he was working outside of a New York skyscraper. His brother was working alongside him on a scaffolding platform that wasn’t properly secured, and unfortunately was not able to withstand the fall.
The death of Moreno’s brother left him so devastated that doctors were unable to risk moving him to another room to operate.
Alternatively, the doctors chose to operate on Moreno in the emergency room. The accident and surgery left him in a vegetable state for a few days short of a month. On Christmas Day, Moreno started to show signs of consciousness and opened his mouth to speak.
Moreno was released from the hospital less than a month after he spoke for the first time since his surgeries. He was told by the doctors that he would walk again in about a year. The mortality rate for falls from even minimal story levels is about 50%. Considering those odds, what Moreno’s lived through is nothing short of a miracle.
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Katrina Burgess miraculously survived a detrimental car crash that left her with a broken back and neck, among other life-threatening injuries. Burgess was 17 at the time of the incident and was pieced together by the placement of 11 metal rods. She was a signed model and was able to live her dreams even amidst her terrible misfortune.
Traveling home one evening in Weymouth, Dorse, Burgess lost control of her BMW M5 and crashed into a ditch. Surgeons who operated on Katrina claimed that without the advancement of modern medicine and rods to help fuse her bones together, that her spinal injury alone would have taken her life. As previously mentioned, Burgess suffered from a number of injuries including a broken neck, pelvis, leg, ribs as well as a two punctured lungs.
A day after she was admitted to the hospital, doctors worked tirelessly to save her life. A rod was inserted from Katrina’s hip to her knee, kept together with titanium pins. A week later came an even more risky operation than the ones she had already been through. Six horizontal rods were placed in her back to support her spine.
A few days afterwards, a titanium screw was placed at the top of her spine to support her severed neck.
In five months later Katrina Burgess was practically anew and was able to walk on her own even without painkillers. Yet again, another miracle.
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The one thing D’Zhana Simmons had been hopeful for came to pass when she was finally given a transplant to replace her enlarged heart. To her surprise, her hopes were quickly struck as the new heart she received failed to take to her body and function accordingly.
At that point, doctors had no choice but to remove the new organ from 14-year-old D’Zhara, without any immediate replacement available. Due to Simmons’ critical condition and ever-so-delicate state after two surgeries, a last minute emergency procedure was performed.
Doctors came up with a miraculous stop-cap measure, that encompassed two artificial pumps that kept the blood flowing within her body for 118 days. The Simmons story broke headlines, as she was extremely young but more so because in similar cases a patient’s original heart is left inside their body.
In this case, Simmons’ body was running solely on an artificial heart. Then, luckily she received another heart transplant right in the nick of time. The heart procedure was so successful that she was able to receive a kidney transplant shortly thereafter.
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Doctors faced Shannon and Mike Gimbel with the horrid decision of choosing which would live between their unborn twin girls. At the Swedish Medical Hospital, doctors were sure the girls developed ‘Twin-To-Twin’ syndrome (TTTS) and as a result one had to be terminated in order for the other to live.
TTTS is a condition known to connect twins by blood vessels, causing both bodies to essentially become one. There is virtually no chance of both twins surviving if untreated, and at best one child is saved in the procedure. Struggling to make a decision, the Gimbel’s understandably chose to terminate the weaker baby in hopes that the other would have an increased chance at living a healthy fulfilling life.
Until, Swedish physician Dr. Kent Heyborn presented the couple with another option. Collaborating with doctors Drs. Robert Bell and Michael Belfor in Utah, all three surgeons decided to perform laser surgery while the babies were still in the womb. The procedure involved cauterizing the connecting blood vessels.
Shannon Gimbel is noted stating that she remembers the exact moment when nurses came in and listened to the babies heartbeats through an ultrasound. Lo’ and behold, Reese and McKenna Gimbel were born at Swedish Hospital two months later.
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Who knew it was possible to have your head detach from the rest of your body and somehow survive? Jordan Taylor is a living testament to this unimaginable experience, as his skull was separated from his vertebrae in a life altering car accident.
Doctors refer to this injury as an “orthopedic decapitation” and the likelihood of one surviving is extremely slim to none.
Word of Jordan’s tragic accident and injury spread quickly and churches from across the nation were known to be praying for him and his family. Jordan’s family kept the faith as they knew others around them were doing the same. Finally, their prayers were answered.
The brilliant Dr. Roberts underwent intensive medical procedures to reconnect Jordan’s head to his neck using a metal plate and titanium rods. In just three months, Jordan had left the hospital and was back to his regular life as as a 9-year-old school kid.
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Twenty-one years ago a motorcycle accident almost took the life of David Blancarte. Although he came out alive, he was unable to move his legs and was bound to a wheelchair for nearly 20 years. Being paralyzed from the waist down, no one could have suspected that today, Blancarte would be walking.
He was bitten by a brown recluse spider and hospitalized for 8 months afterwards undergoing intensive physical therapy. While in therapy, a nurse witnessed a leg spasm and ran some tests. A miraculous 5 days later Blancarte was walking on both feet once again.
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Over a decade ago, Martin Jones was injured on the job as a builder. He was left blind after the incident but thanks to modern technology, Jones’ vision was renewed. The procedure doctors performed had been done less than 50 times and luckily Jones is now apart of that number.
At the time, the 42-year-old lost his left eye after hot aluminum exploded in his face at a scrapyard. Doctors were able to treat his right eye after the accident, even though he was unable to see through it. He suffered various burns and was ordered to wear special body protection all day. Stem cells were used at first to try and repair the damage of his eyes but the attempt failed.
However, the outstanding operation that did take included implanting part of one’s tooth into the eye. The revolutionary procedure was developed at Sussex Eye Clinic in Brighton. A section of a patient’s tooth is taken and reshaped to grip a man-made lens, that is then used as a placement holder underneath the eyelid and eventually covered once tissue grows back.
Skin was taken from Jones’ cheek and placed in the eye for a few weeks where it still acquires its own blood supply. When his tooth was finally placed into the eye-socket, the grafted skin was lifted from the eye and placed on to its new base. And just like that, Jones was able to see out of his left eye once again.
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While surfing at Sydney’s Bondi Beach, Glenn Orgias was attacked by a great white shark. The 33-year-old’s hand was hanging from his body, held by a few centimetres of skin as he was rushed to St. Vincent’s Hospital. Doctors did not expect to reattach his hand but miracles will be miracles.
The speed with which the emergency team got Glenn to the hospital played a major role in the success of the operation. Plastic surgeon Dr. Kevin Ho claims leeches were used to help restore the flow of blood to Orgias’ hand and believed that complete function would be restored in no time.
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