Miracles: Are they for real?

We often hear about miracles that happen to people, but so long as it hasn't happened to us, how do we know it was for real? Did these people have a proven disease to start with? Was it investigated and documented? Did they have any form of treatment? Homeopathic/Ayurvedic/Chinese or other native forms? Did they get healed beyond reasonable doubt? Was the healing again medically proved by investigations and documented? Have they suffered a relapse since?

Out of sheer curiosity I asked a forum of doctors to share such 'miracles' and here are a couple of amazing finds.

This one is from a cardiologist:

In cardiology we routinely see people denying surgery for triple vessel disease and live long, may be longer than the ones operated and think it's a miracle. These can be explained by science, reason and the exaggerated fear of "heart problem".

I don't believe in such miracles.

There was this one particular incident that I think IS/WAS a miracle or an unexplained medical mystery.

There was a man from Thanjavur, with a Hindu name, who was admitted for Coronary angiography followed by AVR (Aortic valve replacement) , the following day. When I did his ECHO, his gradient across the Aortic valve was 128 mmHg peak, which qualified him for severe Aortic Stenosis. The ECHO is supposed to be accurate for the estimation of AS severity. The patient asked me if I'm sure of the severity of AS while I was doing the ECHO. I was a bit annoyed, but he kept querying the gradients and said "Please be sure" etc. The next day morning the patient called me in the morning and wanted to repeat the ECHO. I asked my colleague to do it and he confirmed the findings.

While he was on the table for coronary angiography and I was busy inserting a sheath in his femoral artery, again he asked " Doctor, do you think I will need surgery?" . I said bluntly "Yes, sometimes you need to accept it". I proceeded with the angiography. His valve was calcified, and while trying to engage the right coronary, the catheter entered the left ventricle unintentionally. I would have never attempted that on a severe calcific aortic stenosis (It is difficult to even pass a wire through the stenotic aortic valve). Now we had a direct pressure measurement from the left ventricle and the gradient across the aortic valve on pull-back was 26 mmHg. I was lost in disbelief and actually repeated it and recorded it on paper. Seeing all the excitement in the lab the patient calmly asked "it's normal, isn't it?". I had to swallow all the big talk I had given earlier and say "yes".

He said, "Doctor, I have a promise from God, that I will not need surgery, that's why I asked you to check so many times". He happened to be a converted Christian and had this unshakable faith that he will not need surgery. This is after allowing us to post him on the list and paying the amount for the surgery. He of course, didn't have the surgery.

He is still asymptomatic and is on follow up for > 5 years. I don't dare to discuss the ECHO gradient with him anymore.

Here is one from our time in General Surgery:

About 4 years ago, while running our own small general surgical practice in Madurai, a young couple walked into OP. She had jaundice which a scan revealed to be caused by stones in the CBD. Her gall bladder was packed with stones and sludge. Stones had also spilled into her Common Bile Duct. There were multiple ones, some larger than 1.5 cm.

We advised her to go in for a laproscopic cholecystectomy with ERCP and basketing. As we did not have the facility and this was not available anywhere in Madurai at the time, we referred her to CMC, Vellore.

For reasons of financial and social support, they decided they could not go all the way to Vellore (both were orphans, brought up in an orphan home, with no known close family for support and had 2 children). They asked for an open cholecystectomy, but we instead offered to speak to our friends in Vellore to get some help for them. The couple did not show up after that and we learnt they had been accepted by another surgeon for an open cholecystectomy and CBD exploration.

A month later, both walked into our OP again, faces wreathed in smiles. Assuming she must be post-op, we asked how the surgery had been and if she was alright now. Her answer stunned us. She said, "Doctor, I am alright, but there has been no surgery. We went to ----- Hospital and I was given a date for surgery. They repeated the scan and found the same stones. I asked the surgeon for one week time. I went home, fasted and prayed, "Jesus, I have no mother and no father to be with me or give me money but I have these stones. You are my mother and my father. You have to take care of me." At the end of the week, at a particular instant, I knew I was healed. I went back to ----- Hospital to be admitted. I requested the surgeon to repeat the ultrasound just to check one more time before the surgery. This time, there were no stones anywhere! The doctors were so surprised, they repeated the scan again, but still there was nothing! So we came here to tell you!"

After getting over the 'shock' we sent her back to the sonologist who had done her first scan with a letter giving details of the story. The sonologist repeated a scan for free to check and she also found everything clear, no stones or sludge anywhere!

Though personally, I have not experienced a miracle of such scale, I do believe they can happen. We still do not know all the ways of nature but God, who created nature, holds it in His sway; yet He listens to and watches over a woman humbly praying behind closed doors. To me thats just great!