For the last several weeks, I have been playing my flute in church...and limping through it because something had happened to it and it needed a repair. I had no idea what the problem was or how much it would cost to fix it, I just knew something was WRONG. So...today I finally broke down and took it to the repair shop. In just a few minutes the man had replaced a tiny bit of cork that had fallen off and my flute was playing just like new! I was amazed that this very tiny missing piece had caused me so much trouble, and I wondered why I had waited so long to do something about it. The truth is, I didnt want to pay the cost to have it fixed, I just wanted to do it my way and muddle through. At the repair shop I found out that the expert knew just what to do, and he didnt even charge me a dime! That reminded me how that when we put our lives in the hands of the Master, He takes care of it all, and Hes already paid the cost! And I walked out if there thinking how great God is to care about a tiny cork on my flute! Not only does He name the stars and tell the earth how to spin, He cares that I needed an itsy-bitsy piece of cork! A cork is such a small thing in comparison to the story of Brandon I have copied below. But I just wanted to remind us all that nothing is too big or too small for God to handle. So just give it to Him! A Miracle for Brandon -written by Marie Dukes- When Brandon was 11 days old, one doctor told his family that, “no medicine, no surgery, and no miracle” was going to make him any better. That doctor didn’t know who we know! This is the true story of how the Great Physician reached His mighty hand to little Brandon Dukes and healed him just moments before he was expected to die. Brandon was born to Andy and Marie Dukes at 2:19am on January 16, 1994. He arrived about 3 weeks before his due date, but that was not a matter of concern for the doctors or his family. However, within just a few minutes after his birth, he began struggling to breathe. With every breath, his chest would cave in, and he was grunting and turning blue. Initial x-rays showed a small pneumothorax (air leak) in his lung, and that he had developed pneumonia. His condition continued to worsen, and on the 3rd day of his life, he was put on a ventilator. The decision was then made to transport him to another hospital, five driving hours from our home. We could already see the LORD work! The medical jet that would usually make the flight was transporting another patient. The person who was in charge of arranging the transport knew of someone else who could make the flight. This person’s jet could make it to the hospital in 45 minutes. It would have taken the other plane 1-½ hours. We were told by the transport team that if Brandon had been on the other plane, he would have died in the air. Just 5 minutes after arriving at the hospital, his blood pressure and heart rate had bottomed out. His new chest x-ray showed that air leaks were in both lungs now, and the doctors inserted tubes through his chest to relieve the pressure that had built up around his heart. He was also placed on a jet-ventilator that gave him 500 puffs of air every minute. My husband and I arrived at the hospital several hours after Brandon, along with our families. As we walked into the Neo-natal Intensive Care Unit, I told the person standing there that I was Baby Boy Dukes’ mom. She had a desperate look on her face, and then led us into a little room, where she began explaining Brandon’s condition. She said that his lungs had ruptured, and that he had a viral pneumonia. He was listed in critical and unstable condition and we were told that his chance of living through the night was less than 1%. Having been raised the daughter of a wonderful Baptist preacher, and married to my childhood sweetheart, I had always depended on my daddy or my husband to ‘fix’ every problem I had ever had. But this night, I really had to depend on the One I had heard preached about all my life. As the family knelt in that little room, we all began to pour our hearts out to God. I laid on the floor and prayed and prayed and prayed. We asked for God to give the doctors knowledge on how to treat Brandon, and to somehow, someway, spare his life. His oxygen levels continued to drop, even though he was on the highest ventilator and oxygen settings. The doctors were getting ready to put Brandon on ECMO. It is a heart-lung bypass machine that circulates the baby’s blood and adds oxygen to it before returning the blood to the baby’s body. The procedure, we were told, is very risky, and even with that, his chance of a normal life would be slim. The machine was put at his bedside, but just before he was to be hooked up to it, his vital signs improved just enough that he didn’t need it. God’s hand was so evident that night! Because I was so weak, Andy and I went to the hotel for the night. The other family members waited in the waiting room for word on Brandon’s condition. Several times his vitals bottomed out, and the doctors and nurses would work with him in every medical way to keep him alive. They took pictures of him to show me the next morning, so that his appearance wouldn’t be so shocking. I could not believe that he was actually the son I had given birth to just 3 days earlier. His whole bed was vibrating from the ventilator, and he had gained 3 pounds of fluid. He was extremely swollen, and the sight was quite horrifying! He lay like that day after day. We were told he was the sickest baby there, and we had already seen 4 other babies die. We were scared! Every day his x-rays would look a little worse, and it was unbelievable that he was still alive. The pneumonia was not responding to medication, although his air leaks were improving. I just wanted to hear Brandon cry. I wanted to see the color of his eyes, I wanted to see his mouth without those tubes going down his throat. My arms would literally ache to hold him as I sat beside his bed. I would touch his hand, but he couldn’t respond. I would sing to him and wonder if he could hear me. I would pray that God would make him better, and knowing that He could, wonder if He would. Back home, our church had everyone praying, and we could feel it! There were times that we would sit in the waiting room and actually laugh! God granted many hours of peace and comfort, even in the darkest moments. We experienced God’s grace like I had never seen it before. I had read that He would never leave me alone, and I found His promises to be true. He does give a song in the night! On the 11th day, January 27, 1994, we arrived at the hospital wondering what this day would bring. Brandon had had a bad night. His x-ray that morning at 7am showed the pneumonia to be even worse than they could explain. This is when we heard the words, ‘no medicine, no surgery, and no miracle’. His lungs were now so damaged that even if the pneumonia cleared up, he would never be able to come off the ventilator. The doctors gathered us around a table just outside the NICU. We all sat and cried as they tried to explain all the things that were wrong. We were asked permission to let the doctors perform a surgery that would remove small pieces of his lungs. They would then watch the pieces under a microscope and hope to find out what the pneumonia was, and how to treat it. The process would take several more weeks, if he lived though the surgery. We signed the papers and asked to hold Brandon for the first time since his birth. If he was going to die anyway, I wanted to be able to say I had held him while he was alive. The doctors agreed to let us hold him, and scheduled the surgery for noon that day. At about 11am, we went into the NICU and the nurse pulled a rocking chair close to Brandon’s bed. She carefully wrapped him, so that none of his tubes or monitors would come off, then she handed him to me. His head was completely flat on the back from how he had been laying for so long. Andy and I cried and prayed. I remember saying, “Lord, I know how it feels to hold him now, PLEASE don’t take him from me!” We thought we would have to bury him within the next few days, because we didn’t know what God had already done! Just before we had come in to hold Brandon, the doctor who was to perform the surgery ordered another x-ray. As I held him, a nurse came by with a smile on her face and said, “I have good news!” Then she walked on by to confirm what she had heard. When she returned, she said that the new x-ray showed the pneumonia was gone. Yes, GONE! Someone said that we must have been ‘doin some hi-tech prayin’, and that a miraculous change had taken place that they couldn’t explain! GOD’S HANDS STILL HEAL! Within a day, he was weaned off the machines that had been breathing for him for 8 days. He began to wake from the coma, eat, move, and cry. That was music to our ears! Because of all the treatment he had received, and because his oxygen levels had dropped so low during the first several days, we were told that he would have vision problems, and hearing and learning disabilities. Today, he is a healthy boy, with no lingering signs of his illness, except for 2 scars on his chest and one on his arm that forever remind us of what God did. Although those were the hardest 11 days of my life, I am truly grateful that God had me there. I couldn’t understand at the time why I couldn’t have a healthy baby like all my friends had. But, now I have a blessing to share for all of my life! It is almost unbelievable, but we saw a miracle with our own eyes! No matter how hopeless and helpless a situation may seem, God is able! My sister, Tracy Jones wrote this poem during and after Brandon’s sickness. Our Miracle -Why the tears, and why the pain? Will we ever smile again? We’ve waited for your birth so long, And now there’s grief instead of song. -A losing battle it would seem, We walk each day as in a dream. Will Jesus take you home to stay? Will Heaven be our meeting place? -Angel wings caress you head-- God almighty at you bed-- Touching, healing, loving you Making your body just like new! -And now you laugh and smile and cry Our days no longer filled with sighs All praise to Him who hung the stars What a miracle you are! I am so thankful for the human hands God provided to take care of Brandon while he was sick. Every nurse, doctor, and airplane pilot meant so much to us. And while we know that the healing came from the Great Physician, our lives were touched by so many people during those days. We are forever grateful to our church, Victory Baptist Church in Valdosta, Ga., who not only lifted us up in prayer, but also made sure that our physical needs were met. We have truly been blessed! Not only in this situation, but all through-out our lives. We can look back on every experience and know that God is always there to catch every tear, bear every burden, and answer every prayer. If you don’t know Jesus, He loves you and wants to be your Savior and Friend. He offers the gift of salvation to all who will call upon Him. Romans 10:13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. I hope this testimony will encourage you in whatever comes your way. I know that God’s plan for our lives may not always be what we want, but HIS way is always perfect. No matter what the situation is, He will provide the grace you need to make it through.
Posted on: Fri, 16 Jan 2015 02:42:09 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015