by Steve Alexander
Pastor, Smith River Baptist Church, Crescent City, California
On January 18, my wife Karen and I started on a vacation that included a pastors’ conference in Florida. The last night of the conference, January 2, Jim Cymbala (pastor of Brooklyn Tabernacle) preached on the power of prayer, and his invitation was to come and pray if you wanted God to do something special in your life and ministry. Little did Karen and I realize what would happen as we went to the altar. While Karen was praying she was struck with a horrible headache.
For the next several days the headaches continued, but we noted nothing seriously wrong. But on Saturday night, February 6, after watching our nephew play baseball in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, things worsened. My wife’s sister was going to take Karen back to her home in Mobile, Alabama, (two hours away) but first she wanted to return to the restaurant where we were to say good-bye to her son’s fiancée. That decision saved Karen’s life.
When they arrived at the eatery we quickly noticed Karen was suddenly much worse. Just moments before, she was walking on her own, and now she was nauseous and could not move her legs. We immediately took her to Forrest General Hospital in Hattiesburg (one of the top neurological hospitals in the country). By the time Karen was on the gurney, she could not respond to the doctor’s commands and her eyes were rolling back into her head. I was losing her.
They rushed her into ER and directly to a CT scan. Then came the devastating news.
“Mr. Alexander, I am so sorry. She has had two hemorrhages, her pupil has already blown out, people usually do not live to talk about it, and she is not going to make it.”
Then neurosurgeon Dr. Lon Alexander (no relation) who was on call from Jackson that night entered the picture. He told me we had a very narrow window to save her life and “what we do we must do quickly.” He said he was a Christian and had heard that I was a pastor. He asked me to pray to the Lord that He would help him save my wife’s life. They rushed her off to surgery. I called my church secretary and she informed our church prayer chain. Other prayer chains were started. Some preacher friends on the BBF Summit discussion list joined in. People were praying literally around the world storming God’s throne on behalf of Karen.
While sitting in the CCU waiting room with family and friends from Alabama, we waited and cried out to the Lord for His healing hand. Three hours later the surgeon came out with the news.
He said, “The first miracle is that her pupil has returned. However, along with the two hemorrhages she had a blood clot and a tumor the size of an egg.” He went on to say the tumor was malignant, and they removed all that they could see. Sunday night, Karen had a second surgery to remove some swelling on the brain. Dr. Alexander told me he felt she would survive this to fight the bigger fight of cancer. He also informed me there could be some brain damage and vision damage as well.
However, on Monday, the pathologist report came back: “No cancer found.” The sample was sent to the Mayo Clinic, with the same result returned: no cancer, another miracle of God.
The next several days with Karen lying unresponsive in CCU, my family surrounded her bed holding hands, singing, praying, crying out to the Lord for her life and recovery. Thursday came and still there was no response. The doctor told us at 6:00 a.m. to just keep talking about family to her. At 2:00 p.m., I got up close and said, “I love you,” and despite the tube down her throat and with her eyes still closed, I saw her lower lip form the words, “I love you.”
I told her if she was trying to say, “I love you,” to blink hard. After a pause she did. I was so amazed and excited. Gradually she opened her eyes, began to make hand movements, and whisper. Today, as I write this two weeks later, she is alert, talking, and in rehab learning to stand, walk again, and to feed herself. The prognosis is very good. They expect her to fully recover but with about 80 percent peripheral vision loss in her left eye. She is still often confused as the brain continues to heal, and physically she is growing stronger each day. We simply praise Jehovah Rapha, The Lord our Healer.
I agree with what Jerry Thorpe said to me, “I stand amazed.” To God be the glory, great things He has done! Please join us in prayer for Karen’s total healing.
Editor’s note: At presstime, Karen Alexander continues to recover. She was discharged from the hospital in early March, one month after being within a few minutes of death.