TRIGGER WARNING: This story contains material about the suicide attempt of a minor that some may find distressing.
Then, Ling Min* (not her real name), now 48, and her husband left to collect some goods they had ordered online. Her in-laws went for a walk, leaving her daughter Wenhui* home alone.
“We even shared the lift with the police and asked him what happened.”
“My daughter was all smiles when we left,” Ling Min recalled.
Husband and wife didn’t have an inkling of what was going on when they returned to find ambulances and police cars around their condominium block.
“We even shared the lift with the police and asked him what happened. He told us something had happened on the first floor,” said Ling Min.
“We thought that maybe the neighbour’s dogs had bitten someone.”
When husband and wife got to their 14th floor apartment, their front door was unlocked but no one was home.
“My heart dropped. My daughter never lets us look at her phone and has never told us her passcode.”
Their daughter’s bedroom windows were wide open and her handphone was on her bed along with a slip of paper that had a passcode written on it.
“My heart dropped. My daughter never lets us look at her phone and has never told us her passcode.”
The couple rushed to look down from the window. They saw police and paramedics crowding around something.
“It was too dark and too far down to see what it was. But when we looked across, we saw that the people in the opposite block were all standing at their balconies looking down as well.
“Even our next-door neighbour was at his balcony looking down. He told us, ‘While you were out, police came to your house but no one was home.’
“I had a bad feeling.”
The couple rushed downstairs.
“It’s Wenhui”
As the lift descended, Ling Min’s husband had to support himself with rails in it. He was collapsing.
“He kept saying, ‘How can it be like this? It can’t be. It can’t be.’
“I patted him and said, ‘Nothing bad is going to happen. God will take care of her.’”
“My husband was collapsing. He kept saying, ‘How can it be like this? It can’t be. It can’t be.’”
Ling Min had been a Christian since she was in her 20s and prayed for everyone in the household every day. In that moment of uncertainty, she remembered how God had “never failed me”,
“He has always been there for me even if it sometimes takes a long time for me to see it. I felt God would have heard all my prayers.”
At the scene of the commotion, she saw her in-laws.
“My father-in-law was expressionless. My mother-in-law was sitting on the ground crying.
“She crawled to me and tugged at my skirt and said, ‘It’s Wenhui.’”
A mum’s prayer
Ling Min’s daughter had fallen 14 floors but she was still alive.
Paramedics rushed her to the hospital but did not let the family follow her in the ambulance.
“The police kept wanting to interview me.”
“I felt like such a failure then. How could I be a good mother if she would rather die than be my daughter.”
Ling Min had scrolled through the messages in her daughter’s phone before passing it to the police. In it, the teen had talked about how stressed she had been over school work.
She had written, “I have an assignment due tomorrow. It is good that I am gone because I will not have to hand it up now that I have left the world. Goodbye my beloved piano. Goodbye my new home.”
The family had recently moved into the condo.
Enroute to the hospital, Ling Min called all her Christian friends and asked them to pray for her daugther.
Wenhui needed emergency surgery. Her lungs, liver and kidney were damaged. She had serious skin lacerations and broken bones throughout her body and face. And she had lost a lot of blood.
Doctors told the family the surgery would take four hours.
As they waited in the hospital corridor, Ling Min wept and kept hoping it was a dream.
“As her mother, I beg You to give her back to me. As You gave her to me when she was born, give her to me now.”
“I felt so sorrowful thinking about how sad my daughter must have felt, how she must have lost hope in life to decide to jump from such a height.
“My heart was in so much pain thinking what pain she must have felt to no longer want to live, to rather die than be with me.”
Wenhui had always been obedient. Many people had complimented Ling Min for bringing her up well.
While Ling Min was heartened that she had not pressurised her daughter much over school work, she felt like such a failure.
“How could I be a good mother if she would rather die than be my daughter?
“How had I not known what she was going through? I cried till I felt like my heart would break.”
She begged and begged God to restore her daughter.
She told Him, “I beg you, have pity on me. If this is how her life should end and if her suffering on this earth is so bad and You want to take her away, I will accept it.
“But as her mother, I beg You to give her back to me. As You gave her to me when she was born, give her to me now. I know you are the one in control of the surgery.”
Miracle after miracle
Within two hours of being wheeled into the operating theatre, Wenhui was wheeled out. The surgery was a success.
“I knew God had heard my prayers. He had raised His hand to save my child. But I refused to stop praying.”
Wenhui still had a long road ahead with more surgeries and rehabilitation.
The doctor in charge of the ICU also said that there was the possibility of brain damage.
Because her face was so swollen, he also suspected that her brain might be swelling too.
If that was the case, it could take days, weeks and even months for the swelling to subside. She would be unconscious till then.
Even if she did regain consciousness, there was no guarantee she would be able to function as she did before. She could also develop an infection post-surgery.
“I asked her, ‘If you can hear me, can you move something?’ And she raised her left hand.”
“I accepted all this but I also trusted my God. I took all that the doctor had told me and brought it to God.
“I knelt and cried before Him and asked Him to return her to me.”
That night, just 24 hours after Wenhui had fallen 14 floors, she regained consciousness.
“I was in the toilet when my husband shouted for me. He said the nurse was asking if we wanted to see our daughter.”
At her bedside, Ling Min spoke to her daughter. She told her that God had saved her life.
“I told her not to be afraid, that she was not alone. We were all there, everyone was praying for her.”
Though Wenhui’s eyes were closed, tears fell from them.
“Then, I asked her, ‘If you can hear me, can you move something?’ And she raised her left hand.”
“The nurse told me, ‘Though I’m not a Christian, surely a big hand must have come to pull her up.’”
Ling Min’s spirits lifted. She knew then that Wenhui not only heard her, she had understood her.
The family would soon hear of more miracles surrounding the incident.
Police told them that Wenhui had fallen in such a way that she had avoided landing on a wall and other items – such as outdoor lighting and electrical boxes – that would have caused even more damage.
“Her head was just 5cm from that wall,” said Ling Min in wonder.
The ICU doctor who had given the family a litany of possible bad outcomes was all smiles.
“He told us he had seen a lot of serious cases and this was truly a surprise. He didn’t think she would wake up in 24 hours.”
An ICU nurse also told Ling Min the same.
“She told me, ‘Though I’m not a Christian, surely a big hand must have come to pull her up.’”
Road to recovery
Ling Min knew that falling from such a height, her daughter should have died. Most would have.
After a week, a UK-trained surgeon was to repair Wenhui’s shattered pelvic bone. It would be a tough surgery.
“I didn’t know how to thank and praise God. His ability to heal is so great. His protection is so powerful.”
But when the surgeon examined Wenhui, he had good news. Her pelvic bone was unusually strong. It could recover on its own. There would be no need for surgery.
“I didn’t know how to thank and praise God. His ability to heal is so great. His protection is so powerful.”
Within three weeks, Wenhui was discharged. After six weeks, she could walk again.
Today, Wenhui is 17 and she walks, runs and swims without any problems.
“She was restored to me exactly as I had pleaded with God.
“We really do have a God who hears us, who is in the midst of us. He is real and alive.”
“The moment I jumped, I knew I was wrong. I think Satan laughed because he thought I was in his grasp.”
But God did more. He also healed Wenhui’s soul too.
Wenhui had told her mother that from Primary 4, she already had thoughts of suicide.
“By Primary 5, the thoughts would come about twice a year. By Primary 6, it was every month. By Secondary 1, it was every day.
“She would think, ‘If I died, I wouldn’t need to go to school or feel this pain and suffering.’”
Her daughter had even researched online to see if she could die from a 14-storey fall.
“She told me, ‘If I didn’t jump then, I would have done it another time. But I didn’t expect Jesus to save me.’
“But Satan celebrated too soon. He didn’t expect Jesus to save me.”
“Her words to me were, ‘The moment I jumped, I knew I was wrong. I think Satan must have laughed because he thought I was in his grasp. But Satan celebrated too soon. He didn’t expect Jesus to save me.’”
After her suicide attempt, Wenhui was put on anti-psychotic medication. But after six months, psychiatrists cleared her, saying she did not appear to suffer from mental health issues.
“But if she didn’t have mental health issues, why did she try to kill herself? Doctors couldn’t figure it out.
“I believe it is God’s healing,” said Ling Min.
Miracle, coincidence or luck?
Though Wenhui knew her survival and recovery was nothing short of a miracle, she did wonder if it was just a coincidence or pure luck.
“The doctors didn’t give us much hope. My husband was devastated.”
Then, after a time of prayer at a youth camp in June 2018, Wenhui started to shiver all over. It was uncontrollable and she couldn’t stop.
“She had never experienced anything like it before.
“After that, she told me she believed that God is real. She would never doubt her miracle again. She wept for hours when she realised this.”
The family’s faith has become stronger as a result of all this.
Ling Min attests to the power of prayer and the protection of a powerful God.
She honestly does not know why Wenhui was saved when others were not. It breaks her heart to think of other families.
“Maybe God wants to use my daughter to save others.”
“The doctors didn’t give us much hope. My husband and in-laws were all devastated.
“I only had God. Even if my prayers never got answered, I always know that God’s will is there and I submit to it.
“But I will never stop praying.”
Wenhui now shares her story with friends who have suicidal thoughts. She uses it to encourage them and give them hope.
Ling Min said: “Maybe God wants to use my daughter to save others.”
*Names have been changed at the request of the family.
If you are struggling with suicidal thoughts, please seek help with one of the organisations listed below.
Where to find help
Call 999 if there is a risk of injury, immediate threat to life or bodily harm (relatives and friends of victims can call as well).
This is an excerpt of an article that first appeared in Salt&Light.
