A True Miracle

This is a true story from my friends Stephan and Janna about the miracle life of their son Dylan. Read this story and tell others about it so that they may also know the goodness of the LORD, and praise HIS name!
*The following is written by Stephan

Whenever a baby is born, I often hear the word “miracle” used to describe the baby. In most cases, I think people are using this as a way of saying that they are amazed at how a new little life came into this world, as opposed to saying that something seemingly impossible happened when the baby was born. However, in the case of my son, I believe that his birth was a true miracle.

To add context to this, we need to go back to last summer. In August, Janna and I had our first ultrasound appointment to see our baby. The purpose of the appointment was so that the ultrasound technician could examine the baby to make sure that everything was on track and that he was developing as he should be. We got to watch as the ultrasound technician showed us where his head, arms, and legs were. During the appointment, all seemed to be going well.

Several hours after the appointment, we received a call from the hospital with the results of the scan. The nurse started the call by saying that she had bad news for us: the ultrasound revealed that our baby had a large, fluid-filled sac called a cystic hygroma at the base of his neck and all down his spine.

While all cystic hygromas are bad, our son’s case was very severe. In 80% of cases that are this severe, the babies die in the womb. In the other 20% that survive until birth, the babies are born with extreme deformities and most die from complete organ failure. (I debated about whether or not to link to a picture of a fetal cystic hygroma. For those that are interested, here is a link to a picture - WARNING - the image is incredibly disturbing- http://www.humpath.com/IMG/jpg/cystic_hygroma.jpg) The nurse said that a very small number of cystic hygromas resolve themselves over the course of a few months if they are minor cases, but our baby’s case appeared to be too extreme for that possibility. She recommended that we book an appointment with a genetic specialist who could do a more in-depth scan of our baby and give us more information about what we should expect.

Obviously, Janna and I were devastated at the news. The nurse had all but diagnosed our son with a death sentence. The best-case scenario was that he would be born with severe deformities and disabilities. We spent the rest of that day in prayer. We prayed that God would heal our son if that were His will. We prayed that if it was not God’s will to heal him, that He would give us the strength and peace to endure whatever happened. We leaned on the following verses from the Bible for comfort:

- Romans 8:28 - And we know that God causes all things to work together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.

- Proverbs 3:5-6 - Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight.

- Psalm 50:16 - Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you and you shall glorify Me.

Although, we were still shell-shocked by the news, we went into the appointment the next morning with the genetic specialist trusting that God would do what was best, regardless of whether or not we understood why it was happening.

At the appointment, another ultrasound technician scanned Janna with advanced ultrasound equipment. She spent over an hour taking pictures and measurements in silence and then asked us to excuse her. A few minutes later, the doctor on-call came into the room and started scanning Janna again. After another 30 minutes she turned to us and said, “Well, I don’t know what to say…both the technician and I reviewed the pictures your primary doctor sent over and we were shocked by how extreme the case was. However, we’ve both been scanning and taking measurements of your baby for the last hour-and-a-half and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with your baby. He looks perfectly normal.”

Janna and I were overwhelmed with relief and joy at the news. Although we believed the initial report, we wanted to do our due diligence to make sure everything was truly clear. We had a follow up appointment with the genetic counselor the next week to scan again and the report came back perfectly normal a second time.

When we went to the next appointment with Janna’s primary doctor, we talked to her at length about what had happened. She brought up the original ultrasound pictures on her computer. We were able to see the cystic hygroma on the base of the neck and all down the spine. There was definitely something on those original pictures that was not on the latest pictures. The original pictures had Janna’s name and the time-stamp on every single frame, so there was no way that the wrong pictures of another baby had been switched with ours. The doctor was baffled and said that she had never seen anything like it before. She said that minor cystic hygromas could resolve themselves over months in very rare occasions, however, that never happens for the extreme case that our son had and not in a span of 24 hours.

I truly believe that God performed a miracle in healing my son, Dylan. When he was born at the end of February and the doctor pronounced him 100% healthy, I can safely say that was one of the happiest moments of my life. As I write this, he’s now 2 weeks old and I’m still completely overwhelmed with thanksgiving to God for saving my son’s life.