“Patient dead. Mother prayed. Patient came back to life.”
Those words were written by the first doctor who treated 14-year-old John Smith on January 19, 2015 — the day he fell through the ice on a frozen lake near his home in St. Charles, Missouri. By the time the first responders located John and pulled him out of the icy water that day, he wasn’t breathing, had no pulse and had been without oxygen for a full 15 minutes. They immediately started CPR and took him to the local hospital, where doctors and medical personnel continued to work on him feverishly for 43 more minutes — with no response. The medical team finally gave up, and called in John’s adoptive mother, Joyce, so that she could pay her final respects to her son before they officially declared him dead.
But Joyce Smith was not ready to give up hope for her son’s recovery! And so she began to pray over his lifeless body — in a loud voice that could be heard throughout the emergency room of the hospital. She doesn’t remember her entire prayer that day, but she does recall saying these words to God: “Please send your Holy Spirit to save my son!”
Suddenly, without any further medical intervention, the boy’s heart monitor began to register a pulse — which put him on the road to what has become a full and complete recovery.
John’s miraculous story is the subject of the recently-released film, “Breakthrough,” which is in theaters now. We highly recommend it, since it’s a beautiful testimony to the power of prayer, and to the faithfulness of a mother’s love.
