It was August 26, 2002. At 3.50pm, I was in my clinic and received an urgent call from my son, Andrew.
He shrieked into the phone: “Dad! Dad! Come quick, Sarah’s dying! She’s dying!”
Sarah was our four-year old daughter. After ascertaining from Andrew where she was, I dashed out of the clinic and my nurse drove me to the house of Freida, the violin teacher.
Frieda had discovered Sarah lifeless and hanging from her neck by a nylon clothesline at the back of the house at around 3.45pm.
She had been playing with Freida’s three-year-old daughter, Magdalene, and must have climbed up on a stool to play with a rope left dangling from the clothesline. She had probably gotten her head accidentally caught in the rope and, in panic, toppled the stool and strangulated. The rope became her noose.
Magdalene tried to alert her mum who was in the house tutoring our son, Andrew, on the violin. The little girl had limited vocabulary and so was unable to communicate the crisis to her mother. She was shooed away but returned and yank her mum’s hand hard.
NO BREATH
Valuable time had ticked by, probably six to seven minutes in all. Frieda finally sensed something amiss and walked to the backyard. To her horror, she found a lifeless Sarah hanging, like a rag doll, from the clothesline.
When brought down, Sarah’s face was dark blue. She was motionless. There was no breath, no pulse, no heartbeat. The pupils of her eyes were fixed and dilated in the hot sun.
Sarah was like a rag doll, hanging lifeless from the clothesline.
Sarah was clinically dead.
Frieda shouted for her husband to come and help with CPR. That was when Andrew rang me.
After many minutes of desperate resuscitation effort, when hope was almost gone, Sarah suddenly choked and began struggling with some breaths.
THE PROMISE
When I arrived, Sarah was still unconscious on the grass, a dark rope mark round her neck. Her face was still dark blue and she had dark spots round her eyes. Her body was bathed in a cold sweat, and there was hardly any breath or discernible pulse.
Even worse, I knew that the contorted posture of her body and limbs indicated severe brain damage.
I cried out to God and spoke directly to Sarah: “Sarah, you shall live, you shall not die! Jesus heals you and gives you life!”
I continued CPR as best as I could, and as she stabilised, I scooped her into my arms and ran to the car. Frieda’s husband drove us to the hospital, as the ambulance hadn’t arrived yet.
The bruising from the rope around Sarah’s neck.
My medical colleagues were waiting in the emergency room when I carried Sarah’s frail body in.
Shortly afterwards, my wife, Nancy, arrived. As we waited in the darkened CT scan room for her brain scan results, we squeezed each other’s hands and whispered the Bible verse from Psalm 118:17 that God gave us that morning.
The verse was now a promise of flood-tide proportions: “I shall not die but live and declare the works of the Lord!”
Sarah was still in a coma. But even at that stage, we believed by faith that God would restore her to us whole. There was now little else that we could do except to pray as the doctors took over.
A MOTHER’S HEARTBREAK
The news spread like wildfire.
Friends, church members, leaders and pastors started pouring in. They comforted us and prayed for Sarah. The rest of the family, including my parents, came. Our other two children were devastated but we told them to pray in faith with us at this critical time.
They formed spontaneous prayer groups outside the ward and in the visitors’ area, holding hands and praying fervently. Others prayed over Sarah — including a whole group of children (her friends). This helped to grow our faith so much.
“Sarah, you shall live, you shall not die!”
Nancy had her head on the bed the whole time, crying to the Lord as she held Sarah’s still hand, pleading silently with tears.
Later, as she drove home to collect some personal items for the night, she could barely see the road through her tears and the heavy rain.
In that moment, the Lord spoke to her that He would heal Sarah — not because we were pastors, nor better than anyone else — but because He loved us.
THE DREAM
By midnight, everyone had left. It was just Nancy, myself and our dear friend Pastor Lam.
Then, suddenly, Sarah broke out of her coma, opened her eyes and cried for her mum.
Nancy hugged her but Sarah’s stare remained vacant. When asked to “kiss mummy” she had to feel for Nancy’s face.
In that awful moment, I realised she couldn’t see.
In that awful moment, I realised she couldn’t see.
I did a few quick medical tests, which indeed confirmed she was clinically blind. Oxygen deprivation had probably permanently damaged the visual part of her brain.
We were devastated. Sarah then lapsed back into a deep sleep.
By 3am I nodded off to sleep from tiredness. Nancy and Pastor Lam continued to pray.
In those few minutes I dreamt of Sarah. I saw her awake, holding up her hands and counting her fingers up to eleven.
I awoke excited, only to realise it had been a dream.
But God was out to surprise me!
COUNTING TO 4
Shortly after, an incredible sequence of events unfolded in rapid succession.
Sarah awoke again at precisely 3.45am, 12 hours after being found lifeless on the rope. Fully alert, she pointed to a clock on the wall. She could see! I told her it was four o’clock.
“Four?” she asked. Sarah held up her hands in exactly the same way I had seen in my dream. She counted: “One, two, three, four …”
She continued to 11.
Sarah was completely healed 12 hours after she was found lifeless.
I broke down and wept.
In that moment, God had restored everything: Her sight, her intellect, her brain.
She read a book to us. She talked animatedly. Then she sang “Jesus loves me, this I know” and a couple of other songs.
It was a sacred moment; we were totally in awe.
Pastor Lam, who was the only other witness to the miracle, stole out of the room. He went down to the carpark and bawled his eyes out in thanksgiving.
A VERY HAPPY FOURTH BIRTHDAY
As dawn broke, I began making calls to family and friends with the good news: Sarah was completely healed!
Sarah was fully healed at 3.45am on her fourth birthday on August 27, 2002. It was an unforgettable morning of joy, laughter and tears of gratitude to God.
She was discharged by lunchtime the same day, and celebrated her birthday at home.
Today, Sarah (pictured with dad Phillip) is a medical student in Gold Coast, Australia, and is actively involved in church. She hopes that being a doctor will enable her to help others get a second chance at life.
This is an excerpt of an article that first appeared in Salt&Light.
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