My son Rafael was born on 1st July 2011, 2 months premature because of a blockage in his urethra, also called as Posterior Urethral Valves in medical world. Due to this both his kidneys were significantly damaged and he was fighting for stability while at Seattle Children’s hospital. When he had reached reasonable stability after a month and about to be discharged from the hospital, he caught an infection which was turning serious. I want to testify to the subsequent miracle that happened during this time.
Friday the 12th August everybody was in agreement that Rafael was doing well, and could be comfortably discharged. We were all set to have him home, which would be a great sign and relief after a month of pain and trauma in the hospital.
However, the next day, he started showing signs of stress, discomfort, unable to sleep well. His urine turned from clear yellow to hazy white, with whitish particles in it. By Sunday it was apparent he was not doing well, and his blood tests revealed bacterial infection. Unfortunately by Monday it went too far and it entered both his urine and blood stream. Having it in his blood would mean a risk of affecting other organs as well.
The doctors ordered blood draws from him everyday, stopped his feeds, started poking him again everyday for IVs, and took an extract of his spinal fluid for test of meningitis.
His tests came positive on Tuesday and he was affected with bacterial infection . They put him on a heavy dose of antibiotics, which according to them should clear out the infection in 2 days. However even by Thursday, his blood tests were positive. The doctors were concerned that the antibiotic was not clearing this out. They ordered for an ultrasound of his kidneys, and found debris in his right kidney, which they suspected were bacteria remains that were not getting cleared because the kidney due to damage was not flushing it out.
They decided to call for emergency surgery to insert a tube in his right kidney and let the urine pass through it. We asked if this procedure would get rid of the debris, and they said it may or may not. They also did not know of the debris will ever clear. This was obviously a huge setback for us, needing a surgery when it was not to be. I wanted to avoid this at all costs.
All this happened so fast that we didn’t even get the time to inform anyone or ask for prayers. .
The protocol usually is, the blood tests should stay negative for atleast 3 days, to prove that the infection is dying and to avoid any intervention.
The doctors told us that if his Thursday tests were also to prove positive on Friday, they would take him for the surgery. If not they would defer to next day. They anyway set up the procedure appointment for Friday, got our consent and all was set for the surgery to happen. Deep in my heart i wished for it not to happen.
Fortunately for us, a brother from India, Fritz Mascarenhas was around for a retreat with the RIC4 prayer group in Bellevue. Fritz prayed over him once on phone on Thursday afternoon, and again came personally with a good friend at almost 11 in the night. They both prayed over Rafael and explicitly prayed for the surgery to not to happen. He also came on Friday afternoon to pray over him and after that had a prayer session for him with the whole community at the retreat as well.
Friday morning after 24 hrs they found the tests were still negative. Despite that i was being pressured to give a go ahead for surgery. I was driving at that time, and i remembered Fritz’s words to keep trusting the lord and hold on to his promise. It was only a leap of faith that i asked them not to go ahead. I know i was talking a risk, but i had to exercise my faith as well.
His 2 blood tests, one drawn on Thursday, the other on Friday both stayed negative over the whole weekend and even after that. Rafael’s condition improved almost instantaneously, his fussiness stopped, he started sleeping well, he started looking healthy, and his urine turned back to clear yellow from whitish. His creatinine dropped from 1.2 to 0.9 (Creatinine test is a test done for measuring kidney function with 0.2 as normal and 2.0 as a failure) and inflammation reduced from 24 to 0.3. The need for surgery was averted. A few days later, after the doctors did the ultrasound, they saw the debris had also cleared out from his right kidney. He was subsequently declared infection free.
Praise the Lord for this miracle!
Albert
Bothell, USA