God+Prayer=Power for LIFE

John Smith from Pastor Care passed this along to me in his weekly prayer email. It is so inspiring that I wanted to share it with all of you:

Steve Seaberg and I are connected because his son Aaron is married to my daughter Sarah. On Friday 2-8-08 Steve woke up with chest pains. A friend drove him to the hospital and Steve had a heart attack in the car on the way to the hospital. He was pronounced Dead on Arrival at Saint Mary’s Hospital in Grand Rapids.

When Aaron and his sister Amy arrived at the hospital they were informed that their Dad had died. While Aaron and Amy were saying their goodbyes, Aaron poked his Dad. One of the attendants asked why he did that, and he said, “I don’t know. I just want to make sure he isn’t messing with us.” A few minutes later Steve began breathing again and there was a pulse. Aaron and Amy were asked to leave the room immediately while the attendants began to work on Steve. His vital signs came back and they were able to stabilize him. When the blood rushed back into his brain it spiked a very high fever. They had to begin a full body cooling procedure that will take at least 24 hours. They were in the room with him when 24 minutes later, Steve began breathing again and his pulse returned.

Steve never regained consciousness during that time and he was not responsive to anything. But the doctor’s and nurses did a wonderful job of caring for him and maintaining his vital signs as they cooled down his body to reduce swelling in the brain and then warmed him back up again.

Steve’s family and friends never gave up on him. They continued to tell him they loved him and they were there with him. We had no way of knowing if there was any brain activity because the numerous complications would have rendered any of the tests inconclusive, so they didn’t run them.

We continued to hope and pray, while preparing our hearts for the truth and reality we preferred not to accept. The weight of being the one who would have to make the very difficult choices was resting squarely on Aaron’s shoulders. I listened to Aaron talk about it for quite awhile while I was at the hospital Wednesday afternoon 2-13-08.

Then I had to leave to meet with a pastor in Rockford. While I was meeting with this pastor a call came through on my cell phone from my wife – so I took the call. Sarah had just called her with the most amazing news! Steve opened his eyes and called Aaron by name, called his daughter Amy by name, and called his sister Chris by name. He was surprised that Chris was there because she lives in Texas.

There in the ICU of Saint Mary’s hospital, the Seaberg family witnessed an absolutely amazing miracle! And we want to give You all the praise and the glory!!!!!!

Thank You Father!

Praise You Jesus!

Bless You Holy Spirit!

Perhaps an appropriate response might be to leave a prayer in the "comment" section. I'll pass along to the Seaberg family that Frankly readers are praying for Steve.