Just when everything’s going south for this COVID-19 patient, a miracle not everyone was expecting happened. This woman woke up moments before she was about to be pulled out from life support.
Bettina Lerman, 69, had been on a ventilator for weeks now as she battled COVID-19. The doctors have not been optimistic about her case and knew that her health condition would worsen as days passed. Her family had started to prepare her funeral and bought a tombstone already. They even gave her belongings away and let go of her apartment in Florida. “We … donated everything in her apartment for others in need at her senior community,” her daughter, Jennifer Miele, said. “We had already went to the funeral home and was planning her funeral, with the little bit she had left.” You could imagine the tears they shed and the pain they had to face of not being beside their loved one during the last moments of her life. COVID-19 had made saying goodbye extra challenging for the families of dying patients.
Though this was a sad and heartbreaking preparation, her family knew that they had to face the inevitable very soon. They knew that Lerman’s survival was very, very slim.
Then, suddenly, doctors at Maine Medical Center in Portland, Maine, had the biggest shock of their lives. Lerman was scheduled to be removed from her life support already. On the day she was about to be pulled out from her life support, a miracle happened–she opened her eyes.
Andrew, Lerman’s son, received a call from the doctor, and he had the biggest surprise of his life when he learned that his mom was already awake. “[The doctor’s] like, ‘Well, I need you to come here right away.’ I was like, ‘OK, what’s wrong?'” he recalled. “He goes, ‘Well, there’s nothing wrong. Your mother woke up.'” He said that his mom has strong faith. She is a “prayer warrior,” her daughter described Lerman. A lot of people and friends in her church prayed for her recovery.
Andrew, though not religious, knew that someone powerful was at work. “So they can’t explain it on the medical side. Maybe it’s on the religious side,” her son said. “I’m not that religious, but I’m starting to believe that there’s something that helped her. I don’t know.” He added, “She’s a miracle.”
Lerman was in a coma for more than a month, totally unresponsive, suddenly waking up was indeed a miracle. COVID-19 may have intended this story to end in death, but God still has the upper hand. He turned this sad story into a testimony of His power, goodness, and love. That even those who “were not religious” acknowledge that someone more powerful was the only reason why this “prayer warrior” miraculously recovered.
“I am the Lord, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?” Jeremiah 32:27
