Miracle Monday: Healing in a Hospital

"Then I saw 'a new heaven and a new earth,' for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea...And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.'" Revelation 21:1, 3-4

Hey, friends! Today I am back with another Miracle Monday! If you are new here or have never read a Miracle Monday, let me tell you how they work:

Miracle Mondays is when I choose one (sometimes more than one!) person in my life to ask three questions to. Those three questions are: 1. Was there ever a time in your life when you did not believe in miracles? 2. Do you have a story you can share when you knew God caused a miracle in your life? 3. How did this miracle change your life?

Today I am sharing what a good friend of mine said about the miracle(s) God has done in her life. Her name is Heather Burnison. Heather lives in Arizona and lives with her two daughters and husband. Heather teaches preschool and Cubbies at her church, and does costuming for a homeschool theater group. At home she enjoys painting, reading, sewing, and learning guitar and piano. Here is her story:

Q. Was there ever a time in your life when you did not believe in miracles?

A. “I don’t think there was ever a time that I didn’t believe in miracles, although I had some professors in college who were adamant that they stopped occurring after the time of the N.T.. I disagreed with them, although there was no specific incidents I could give.

My thoughts on miracles have only slightly changed, in that “yes” big miracles do happen. I am also realizing that not all miracles are the “big healing of a major life threatening illness” type. Sometimes they are in God arranging things to be in the right place and the right time. Some people may not see these as miracles, but I do. The fact that God reaches down and arranges things just right for the healing of mending of relationships is a big thing. I find it greatly humbling to think that the Creator of the Universe cares that much about us, that He is personally involved in the shaping of our lives. Just in the ordering of where we were in our lives with Katlyn’s (her daughter) medical issues made a huge difference.”

Q. Do you have a story you can share when you knew God caused a miracle in your life?

A. “When we first got married, Paul and I moved to MN. It was hard being away from family and everything we knew, but our marriage grew because of it. Seven years later we were finally able to move back to CA (where we are from), never knowing that 3 years later we would have a child who would need the Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles. 

By the time Katlyn (the child who was born) was 6 months old, she had her first surgery. Our pediatrician at the time sent us to a pediatric surgeon at Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles. It was a minor surgery and it didn’t give us any indication that we would need anything more once that surgery was done. By the time Katelyn was 10 months, we had been working on why she wasn’t gaining weight like she should and went for some GI studies. The studies went so poorly, and she stopped eating.

Since we had already dealt with the Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles, we decided to take her there, knowing she had received good care there before. A very long story short, Katelyn spent years in and out of that hospital trying to figure out what was going on. She got to the point where she had a feeding tube, and then a central line that she received IV nutrition through. We had built up a relationship with the nurses on her usual floor to the point where they would see that she was being admitted and would hope ER would listen to me and realize she needed the PICU first. 

One of the times Katlyn was presenting very differently than normal, but they went ahead and sent her up to her normal floor. I was used to her having headaches and a high heart rate with infections and fevers, but this time she had a worse than normal headache and a high heart rate, but she did not have a fever.

The nurses on our normal floor were wonderful in taking care of us. That night the Resident Dr. on call on that floor happened to have spent a lot of time training on the PICU floor. I went out to the nurses station multiple times telling them how she just wasn’t normal and I was very worried. This Resident Dr. was wonderful assuring me and letting me know that they were keeping a close eye on her. Katlyn’s headache was to the point where I couldn’t even have a light on in the room because it hurt her head too much. 

Later that evening, Katelyn sat up crying out and almost clawing at herself, and then fell back non-responsive. I immediately ran down to the tell the doctor; the doctor immediately called the Rapid Response team to evaluate her for the PICU. They quickly took her to the PICU and decided they would do a Lumbar Puncture to see what was going on. Because of this, they put her in the room right next to the nurses station in the PICU. 

Shortly after we got her to the PICU and while they were preparing to do a Lumbar Puncture, she just stopped breathing. We still don’t know what caused her to stop breathing, but because she was right there next to the PICU nurses station, they were able to start working on her immediately. Because of the amazing team there in the PICU, the nurses were able to quickly see that just using the bag was not working. Immediately they got her intubated. 

Katelyn spent a week intubated with some of the complications of whatever it was that caused all of it. However, I KNOW that if it hadn’t been for our normal nurses, our normal PICU Resident on call on the floor she was on, the nurses getting her down to the PICU when they did, and Katelyn being right there next to the nurses station, the whole thing might have gone very differently. If Katelyn had still been on the floor, all they could have done was use a bag for breathing on her until they could get her down to the PICU (the bag did nothing to get her oxygen up). The only reason Katlyn didn’t die was because of where she and everyone else involved was placed that night.  

There was also an incident a few years ago on Christmas Eve. I was tired and didn’t feel like making a full Christmas Eve dinner after Christmas Eve service that night, so we planned to go to In N’ Out for dinner (a fast food restaurant). We sat near the windows and were enjoying dinner, when a car hit the wall of the In N’ Out. It was an older gentleman who was trying to park in the handicapped spot and somehow went right between both the handicapped signs and instead hit the building. He did not slow down at all. Thankfully, he was driving parking lot speeds, and the building was well built, so the car did not go through the wall. But if God’s hand had not been on those two things, both Elyssa (Heather’s other daughter) and Katlyn would have been hit by the car, the building collapsing on them.”

Q. How did this miracle change your life?

A. “While some people comment on both these situations and say things about it being ‘good luck,’ God has made it clear to me lately that we shouldn’t be referring to things as ‘good luck.’ Instead, we should realize God is the one in charge of every part of our lives and is coordinating everything for His glory. We need to see how everything is done for a purpose, whether we see it on this side of heaven or not. 

I still don’t know why we as a family had to deal with all of Katlyn’s health issues for over 10 years when what was really needed was a simple surgery to remove her gallbladder; I do know that on her 9th birthday God coordinated everything just right for her to still be with us almost 9 years later. He kept that gentleman’s car from going faster, and He kept the wall strong to protect my girls that Christmas Eve.

I still struggle with the why, but I know from what we have lived through that God has a purpose for it; He is still with us, directing our lives even when we don’t know the why.”

I know I have said it before, but “Wow!” What another great reminder that God sees and cares so much for us! He saw Heather and Katlyn in the hospital, and sees you in your struggle too.

I think this is also a great reminder that the hard things we go through in this life are only temporary. We can have hope that when Jesus returns, the world with all its troubles and tribulations will be made right. Paul writes in Romans 8:18, 20-21, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us… For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.“

Did you catch that? Our present sufferings will not compare to the glory that will be revealed in us! When we get to Heaven, I believe all our worries, sorrows, and tribulations of this world will all fade away and not matter anymore because we will be with Jesus! For those who have received Christ, this world is as bad as it gets! This means when we endure sufferings here on earth, we can take heart and hope in knowing there is a better future coming where there will be no pain, no tears, and no more suffering!

So, I want to encourage you, if you are going through something hard right now please know, God is with you, He sees you, cares about you, and is working all things for your good and for His glory. Of course this will never take away the pain we will experience here on earth in the moment, but I pray this gives you hope and encouragement to know your story does not end with your pain. It will end with God’s victory! This world is not our forever home! Praise God!

Thank you so much to Heather for letting me ask her these questions and use her answers to share hope with those reading today! If this is your first Miracle Monday and you would like to read more, feel free to check out the other Miracle Monday’s on this website (you should be able to start by clicking one at the bottom of this page). Much love and many thanks for reading today! Until next time…Happy Monday!

"See, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy. I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people; the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more." Isaiah 65:17-19

Alyssa Rasor