The Miracles around us

Reprinted from original January 10, 2000 article Even in the dawn of millennium 2000, things happen that baffle the best scientific and medical brains. The sudden Christmas Eve awakening of Patricia White Bull--in a deep coma for 16 consecutive years--restores our faith in miracles. Having slipped into a catatonic state while giving birth to her fourth child Mark Jr., the 42-year-old mother awoke and hugged that very child for the first time.

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Mystified doctors could give no explanation for the Christmas Eve awakening. All that was guaranteed was that White Bull had suddenly blurted out: "Don't do that," as nurses were trying to straighten her nursing home bed on Dec. 24. But White Bull's mother, Snowflake Flower had no doubt about the explanation. It was a miracle from God, she said. Picture the scene in South Dakota, where a family rushed to her bedside. On her awakening, White Bull was doing more listening than talking. After 16 years of profound silence, her speech is easy to understand. Her hands, clenched for all of those years, are now unfurled. First on the post recovery social agenda was an impromptu visit to the majestic mountains. Next came a wheel through a local shopping plaza, where she pointed to a pair of running shoes with the exclamation, "I'm going to run." White Bull, who has always gone by the nickname "Happi" delights in repeating the names of her children over and over. Was it love, loyalty and faith that miraculously brought White Bull back to her family? Was it because she is blessed by having a mother who is a true believer? All that is known is that Patricia White Bull stopped breathing when she was delivering son Mark Jr. by Caesarean section. A blood clot had formed in her lung, and although frantic doctors were able to get her breathing again, she had suffered brain damage from lack of oxygen. Doctors told her family that she would never recover. While remaining in a coma at a nursing home, did White Bull somehow know that her husband Mark Sr. would wait three years for her, keeping their children in Albuquerque, where he worked as a computer programmer? After three sad and lonely years, Mark Sr.gradually came to accept that "nothing was going to change." Moving his children to the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in South Dakota where he had relatives, Mark Sr. raised their children, Cindi, 28; Mark, Jr., 16 and White Bull's other children Floris, 17 and Jesse, 19. Over time, with White Bull still deep in a coma, he finally sought a divorce. Snowflake Flower's daughter has been returned to the bosom of her family, with newspaper photographs capturing her smile. The man who pined for her and went on to raise all of her children says: "If she recovers and wants to re-establish a relationship with me, I'm here." Even in the year 2000, there are miracles around us. Closer to home, 15-year-old Jonathan Wamback brought Joy to his wonderful parents Joe and Lozanne on Christmas Day by walking down a flight of stairs. The Wambacks had kept a daily vigil at the bedside of their son who was left in a coma, the result of a savage beating in June that almost killed him. Doctors had a grim prognosis for Jonathan, but his parents refused to leave his bedside. "My wife had never heard of the expression therapeutic touching, but for 24 hours a day, we washed him, touched him, did everything," said Joe Wamback. "We believed that even when Jonathan was at his worst, that he could somehow hear us." When asked what he believed was the reason for Jonathan's return to health, his father answered, "Prayers. The prayers of strangers all over the world." It's January 2000 and God still walks among us. jonathanwamback.com