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Folks, if you are experiencing difficultities in your life and want your life to change drastically for the better, if you need a miracle in your life, go to my Salvation page for help on how to accept Jesus as your very own personal Savior. I cannot tell you what our life was like before we totally accepted Jesus, but I can tell you, sinse we have Him in our life, we know where to turn to in time of trials and need. You too can have this in your life! Just ask Him and He will always be there for you.....

"Miracle.."

Well, for you who haven't seen me in the past month, this is why: I am writing my hubbys testimony as we have been given a major miracle from our loving God and want all to know about it.

On the evening of April 18, 2002, I was up late working on my PC, while my hubby, Dick watched TV. After awhile he came to show me his feet which were swollen three times normal. Having had some nursing, I knew it was congestive heart failure. I called the ER at one of our local hospitals and took him in. They noticed he was short of breath and took his SATS. It was only 86. Normal is 90 to 94. He was put on oxygen and left sitting for almost two hr. The ER Dr. finally came in and never physically touched him in anyway. He looked at Dick's feet and advised him to go see his reg. Dr. on Friday. the 19th.

Our reg. Dr. was not in. Thank God for small favors! Dick was seen by another wonderful Dr.who diagnosed the congestive heart failure, put him on lasix, told us to keep his feet elevated for the week-end and come to the hospital on Monday for a heart ultra-sound. On Tuesday we got a call from the Dr. telling us to go back to the hosp for an emergency CT-heart scan. We did this and were told we were headed for Madison,Wisc.Univ.Hospital NOW!

I waited at the hospital with Dick till they could make the arrangements to get him an ambulance to transport him, then came home to pack for myself and finalize all respite arrangements made for our five foster children. Then we headed for Madison, arrival time about 11:30 pm. Dick had arrived there at 8:30 and they were busy trying desperately to lower his blood pressure to 70 over 40. They were afraid that the blood pressure would burst the large aneurysms they had discovered. We spent the first whole night in the ER room. The next day he went into an ICU unit and on the 24th he had an angio-gram that said all his arteries and veins were clear of any blockages... Thank God for that!

The Dr. wanted a completely free schedule to do Dicks surgery, saying it would take from 6-10 hrs. Surgery was scheduled for Friday, 26th of April.

On the evening before surgery, the surgeon came in to explain the surgery in complete detail and I thought I was going to pass out at what we were told. Because Dick had two large aneurysms in two different places, all blood needed to be removed from his body and he would be put on a by-pass machine. Then to preserve the brain, his head had to be put in a bucket of ice. Then when the surgery is completed they re-insert the blood and start the body running again. This proceedure has been used sinse in the 50's according to his surgeon with great success. The surgeon gave Dick about 2 percent odds of coming off the surgical table alive,but the other odds were that within 1 day to 6 months the aneurysms would burst and he would be dead instantly. The surgeons at the Univ. of Wisc. Hospital said it had to have taken 7-10 yrs. for the aneurysms to grow this large and all this while Dick was a walking time bomb, just waiting to explode.... Praise God for his goodness and unconditional love! Needless to say Dick chose the surgery..... He said that the reason he chose it was he was going to die regardless and he had faith that God would save him with the surgery. How great to have faith that strong. I always thought I had the strongest faith imaginable , now I am convinced that there are others that have faith unending, like mine. Dick is the silent, private type and I always knew he believed in God and that his faith was strong but I never imagined it to be as strong as I have found it to be.

The surgery took from 8 am to 9:30 pm. We prayed all day and wandered the halls of the hospital and talked to others who were there for their families. It was the longest day of my life. The surgeon came to talk with us afterward and said it was the longest and the toughest heart surgery he had ever done. He also said that he would rather have done a complete heart-lung transplant than to have put Dick through what he did. Then he presented another problem for us to think about.... He had no idea Dicks lungs were as bad as they were....We had told him that our local Dr. had said they were shot, three yrs ago but we had no documentation to back it up so he had nothing to go on. The next issue was ...were they going to be able get him off the ventilator? After 1 week, they had to try and by the grace of God another part of the miracle....he could breath on his own. They never expected this to happen...Praise God!  After being taken off the ventilator Dick developed pneumonia. This was a setback they sure didn't want to happen. But with help from God it also cleared up in a short time. After that it was extrememly hard for him to get phlem up by himself and so they ended up putting him on an IVP machine that you inhale medicine with while it rattles your bronchial area and upper chest keeping everything loose and loosening up the rest that is already adhered to the walls of his lungs. We do have to be careful for the rest of his life not to let him come into contact with sick people as his immune system has become so compromised.

Anyway this is an accounting of all that my hubby had endured during his long extensive surgery.... The first aneurysm was right on top of his heart. The main coronary artery had ballooned out to the size of a small football. There was another one hanging in the crotch from this main artery as it swings away from the heart. It was two/thirds the size as the bigger one. They both were removed. There was a third aneurysm that had burst somewhere along the line and because of the tightness of everything all squeezed together in his chest it sealed itself off. Thank God it did or he would have bled to death. Now the second phase of the surgery was to repair/graft the whole main coronary artery and then put in a new mechanical main aorta heart valve. It went pretty smooth.

When they opened up Dicks chest they were overwhelmed at what they found so they took pictures (in color), and have since asked our permission if they can be used to further studies for more interns. Of course we agreed. A lot of work for God! Not on your life folks...He's an AWESOME God and can do anything! I felt my faith being tested many times this past three weeks and I cried many tears and prayed many many prayers, not only for Dick but all the many families there going through one crisis after another. I will daily continue to thank God and praise His holy name for yet another miracle given to our family.

We have many hurdles to overcome yet but with the grace and power of God we will be fine. Dick is on Coumadin for the rest of his life along with many more meds and he has about 12 weeks of healing to do, so please keep those prayers going up.

Folks, if you are experiencing difficultities in your life and want your life to change drastically for the better, if you need a miracle in your life, go to my Salvation page for help on how to accept Jesus as your very own personal Savior. I cannot tell you what our life was like before we totally accepted Jesus, but I can tell you, sinse we have Him in our life, we know where to turn to in time of trials and need. You too can have this in your life! Just ask Him and He will always be there for you.....

Author: Delilah M. Haas Copyright: May 16, 2001

Midi "Feel My Love" Is used with permission copyright © 2001  Bruce DeBoer