First published 10 years ago:
It has been a hard three weeks. We drove the 500 miles thinking we were going to plan a funeral.
 

 They did not expect her to make it. She not only had the endocarditis, but the staph infection was in her very blood. And it was the antibiotic resistant form, MRSA. It was in her lungs, her heart, her blood, and we found out later—her eye. It did not respond to any antibiotics. She had to have a chest tube inserted to drain fluid from around her heart and lungs. She was unconscious for the first 6 days. She could not breathe as her lungs were filled with fungus and fluid. Her urine was black in the catheter.

 
 Nothing they did was working. She was steadily going down hill. They moved her to the ICU, with the idea that they were going to put her on a respirator—but they kept holding off putting her on it; giving her a “few more hours”. They told me that once they do that, it is hard for a person to recover from that…not impossible, but it is usually the last move before hope is gone. They tried everything. They did not hold anything back. She was surrounded by doctors, nurses and aides. It seemed as if the whole hospital had heard about how sick this beautiful 24 year old girl was, and they all wanted to be a part of helping her recover.  
 
We were also surrounded by family and friends. My sister and her husband stayed overnight at the hospital with my husband and I. Relatives came by at all hours of the day and night. Pastors, who did not know us, and some who did, came to support us, and together we all prayed over her.
 
We have felt the prayers of everyone, and want to thank everyone who prayed those prayers. I ask the Lord everyday to bless everyone who is praying for us; because we have been blessed by your prayers! We felt the strength to keep going, and always felt hope in the Lord. We were at peace, and were even able to find some joy in the middle of it all. We saw the Lord’s hand at work, in us, and in our daughter’s care.
 
It just so happened that the doctor on duty, for the first week, was a young doctor whose specialty is infectious disease. She has connections with the top doctors in the field around the nation, and tried the most current treatments. On one of her worst nights, a nurse came on duty, that doesn’t usually work here. The nurse just happened to be called in to work, because of staff illnesses. She is a nurse practitioner, who is an instructor at the college. The charge nurse, on duty most of the time,  use to work at a rehab center …things like that; all working together for our daughter’s good.
 
One young street pastor who came to pray with us and over our daughter, let us pray with him about finding employment. Praise God, the next day, he got a job!  The first day on the job he was able to witness to a woman who had fallen away from the Lord, and who wanted to rededicate her life to Jesus! God is so good….and in the midst of our need, God allowed us to be a part of helping someone else too.
 
The news for us is full of praise, for our daughter has made a miraculous recovery! She is alert and coherent. They were able to remove her chest tube, and the catheter. She was able to go off the oxygen.  The MRSA began to react to the new antibiotics. Her heart is back to normal. They discharged her from the hospital!
 
Praise the Lord!  
 
She still has some challenges. She has a port in her arm that goes into an artery for further blood draws and IV treatments. Her right eye is blind, her gorgeous blue eye will never see again–there is no sparkle in the eye. Her lungs are still full of abscesses, which leave scar tissue behind. Her legs are also full of small abscesses, which make it difficult and painful to walk. We do not know if she will have permanent damage. She suffers fevers and still must go to the hospital every 12 hours for IV antibiotics.
 
But, God is the God of resurrection, and I have seen it myself!