29 - God intervenes: the doctors said Caleb would not live through the night!
September 1984 saw me accepting a position as an electrical engineer with the Green Mountain Power Corporation, located in Burlington, Vermont. In January, 1985, our fourth child (not counting the loss of our twins), Caleb was born. Caleb’s birth was normal and Pat was doing well. It was Pat’s second day in the hospital and I had stopped by to see her over lunch. Pat and I were expecting that she and Caleb would be discharged the following day.
While I was there, several doctors entered the room with some bad news. We were told that Caleb had developed a blood infection which had entered his bloodstream during his birth and translated into sepsis. They were doing everything they could to help Caleb.
I decided to stay with Pat at the hospital that night. The next morning, we again had a visit from the team of doctors. They informed us that things were not going well as the infection was not responding to the antibiotics. They said that Caleb’s white blood cell was bad, that his blood was depleted of mature white blood cells, and that his body was putting out immature white blood cells in an effort to halt the spread of the infection.
The doctors informed us that Caleb was losing the battle. They said there was not much more they could do however with our permission they were willing to try a last-ditch experimental effort to try and halt the infection. Their proposal was to give Caleb an infusion of adult white blood cells from a donor in the hope that the infusion of these adult white blood cells would give Caleb a fighting chance. We agreed to permit them to try this experimental effort.
After the doctors left, I talked with Pat about my experience with my niece, Jolee, described in the story “21 – God, faith, testimony, and the healing of Jolee!” and that it was time to ask God to intervene. I also talked with Pat about the importance of believing that God would answer our prayer. Pat and I agreed that we would pray that God would intervene and heal Caleb.
Beginning that moment, we agreed to reject the appearance of the slightest sign of a doubt sliding into our minds. Upon the appearance of the slightest sign of doubt, “God will save Caleb” became our internal response; over and over again; until the doubt, or doubts, disappeared. As I said before, it is impossible to hold two thoughts simultaneously in your mind and because of this, doubt could not find a home in us. The next morning a team of doctors came in to talk to us about Caleb. They said that the effort to halt the infection by infusing Caleb with adult white blood cells failed and they did not expect Caleb to survive through the night. They also said that we should go and visit Caleb soon in order to see him before he died.
Pat and I did not say anything in response however when they left we agreed that we would not go up to see Caleb as they had suggested. We determined that we would continue to believe that God would answer our prayer and continue to reject any and all the doubts that invariably entered our mind. Observing that we did not go up to see Caleb and thinking that we did not go because of the trauma, the hospital staff took a picture of Caleb with all the tubes and transfusions sticking out of him and gave it to us. We still have it.
Caleb did not die; instead, he began to improve that very night and, with every passing hour, continued his improvement. However, upon his recovery, there remained one problem. He had not urinated for some time and the hospital did not want to release him in that condition. Now it happened that Pat was up visiting him when a pastor was making the rounds. The pastor, on having seen Pat there earlier, stopped and asked Pat what the problem was. Upon hearing Pat’s explanation of Caleb’s recovery from the infection but that he had not yet been able to urinate, the pastor said “why don’t we pray for Caleb about that”. No sooner had the pastor finished praying for Caleb, when Caleb let go like a firehose and the problem was resolved. Pat and I left the hospital with Caleb the next day.
God is a very present help in a time of trouble.
Notes
What is there to learn from this experience of the life-threatening infection that our son, Caleb acquired?
The first thing to learn from this experience, as mentioned earlier, is that God holds the last word in situations like this. A little further background might be of value. The hospital in which Caleb was treated was the University of Vermont medical Center and, as an academic medical center, was up-to-date on medical procedures and treatment.
Another important element to be learned is that trusting and believing God requires perseverance in the face of adversity and conflict. Note that it was the day after we asked God to intervene and set ourselves to ask in faith, doubting not, that the doctors came in and said Caleb would not last through the night; that we should go and say “our goodbyes”. In the face of this adversity and conflict, we did not cast away our faith that God would intervene and heal Caleb.
As the scripture says, God is a very present help in a time of trouble. God healed Caleb.
Some scriptural references
God has the last word it comes to the duration of our life Job 14:5 (KJV) “Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months are with thee, thou has appointed his bounds that he cannot pass;”
The importance of belief Mark 11:24 (KJV) “Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.”
An example of the danger of doubt James 1:5-7 (KJV) “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.”
Help in the time of trouble Psalm 46:1 (KJV) “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”