MIRACLES DO HAPPEN!
Gerry & Jackie Niles
Our LWC brother,
Gerry Niles, celebrated his 73rd birthday earlier this year.
This is his testimony about his
near-death
experience due to Guillain-Barrč Syndrome, a rare illness that affects the
peripheral nerves of the body, causing weakness and paralysis as well as
abnormal sensations.
Having always enjoyed perfect health, Gerry
didn’t take the feeling of pins and needles in both his hands and feet
seriously when he awoke at about 3 am on July 10, 2002 to go to the
bathroom. By 6 am he was a lot worse and very unsteady on his feet, with
pains up the back of his calves.
At 10 am, Gerry met with the neurosurgeon
and by 5 pm he had collapsed while trying to get out of a chair. He was
immediately hospitalized and to this day, he has no recollection of anything
in his life from that moment until 6 weeks later.
The next day he was diagnosed with the
dreaded syndrome and started treatment immediately in the ICU. He got
progressively worse and one week later showed no brain activity. Everything
had shut down and it was suggested that he be taken off life support.
Jackie, his wife of 49 years, asked for another day, although it was felt
that if he lived there would be no quality of life. They had even started
making funeral plans.
The next morning Jackie noticed he was
sweating, something he never does, and she called the first doctor that
passed by. He held Gerry’s hand and told him ‘if you are hearing me move
your eyeballs’. With the illness, his eyes had remained opened all the
time, but for the first time his eyeballs moved and they realized that he
was alive and responding on command.
Jackie puts it down solely to “prayers,
family, friends and I think the whole of Trinidad and Tobago said prayers
for Gerry” who quipped, “I was not ready to go yet.” Recovery was slow and
because his heart and lungs would not work on their own, he remained hooked
to the machine. He was fed intravenously, given continuous blood
transfusions and each day moved a little more and progressively got better.
He now walks with (and without) a stick and is also driving again.
Said Gerry: “ I really and truly feel the
good Lord needed to reach me, so that what I would call my miraculous
recovery made quite an impression on me. Today I am 75 percent cured and
hope for 90 percent plus, but I say to the Lord every day, if He chooses to
keep me no better than I am now, when I think I could have been a vegetable,
then I am quite happy the way I am. Each morning I say, ‘Dear Lord, thank
You for allowing me to see and hear this morning. I feel total appreciation
for being in this world and being able to do the things You want me to do.’
”
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