Recovery From Brain Stem Death

This is a living testimony that I got from a friend and the following is a narration of the event by the brother of the woman who against all medical odds was recalled to total recovery from brain stem death. Please read his firsthand report as he is also a doctor and if he claims it is a medical miracle - the divine intervention of God through persistent importunate prayers, I think I have to agree with him absolutely; it is a miracle wrought by the divine hand of God - for only the Creator has the power of life and death. It is an inspiring story to encourage us never to give up even in the dark night of hopeless despair - that there is always a way out because our God is a living reality, that when medical science fails, we always have a higher power to turn to.

As reported by Dr Alan Chin:

On the morning of Monday April 20 2009, I received a call from my brother-in-law John that my sister Suzanne had suffered a cardiac arrest and was warded in ICU in a hospital in Hong Kong. This came at the worst time possible as I was going through a time of tribulation and crisis in my own life. My wife Josie had just been appointed as the President of AWARE and when she most needed my support, I had to be away!

My mother and I flew up that very afternoon to Hong Kong. We arrived that night and headed straight to Canossa Hospital where Suzanne was warded. We met John and my brother David who had flown in earlier. John recounted what had happened that morning.

As per her usual morning routine, after sending her kids to school, she went for her morning jog with her dog. However, after around ten minutes, she decided to turn back as she was feeling tired. She had a bath and went to bed. As John noticed that she looked unwell and was slow in her speech, he called for the ambulance. Within 10-15 minutes she was on her way to hospital, still conscious.

Unfortunately on arrival at 8:38am, she lapsed into unconsciousness with an un-recordable blood pressure. The doctors commenced resuscitation which lasted about 2 hours. ECG on admission showed narrow complex bradycardia. Intra venous adrenaline was administered and she developed a ventricular tachycardia. She was defibrillated which resulted in sinus rhythm. She was intubated and started on IV dopamine and adrenaline.

She was transferred to ICU after she had been stabilised.

MRI of Brain showed:
- Tiny T2W dark signal in Right cerebellar hemisphere, likely a non-specific focus due to a tiny calcification or tiny focus of old No other intracranial abnormality.
- Trace fluid signal in posterior wall of NP.
ECG immediate post resuscitation on 20.4.2009 – SR, ST depression in praecordial leads
CXR report:
- Interstitial lung markings, right lung pleural fluid, slightly more confluent shadowing RUZ, but may have some pneumonic changes.
In ICU, she developed diabetes insipidus – marked urine output (serum osmolarity 325 urine osmolarity 129) responded to DDAVP.

When I saw Suzanne in ICU, she did not look good. She was on a ventilator; her pupils were 4mm fixed and dilated. Her limbs were flaccid. The respiratory physician advised that the prognosis was very poor with evidence of brain stem death (BSD) and pituitary gland failure. The room temperature in ICU was kept low to slow down the metabolic processes.
I spent the night in hospital praying and interceding. I proclaimed Psalm 118:17 over Suzanne that she shall not die but live to declare the works of the Lord.

An echocardiogram done the next morning on Tuesday April 21 2009 by the cardiologist, Dr. David Ho showed:

- Moderate Aortic
Regurgitation with global left ventricular dysfunction and moderate to severe global hypokinesia.
- Cardiac valves showed no abnormal thickening.
- Tri-leaflet aortic valve
- LVES 4.89cm LVED 5.35cm
- EF 19% by M mode
- LA 2.72cm

Dr Ho suggested a diagnosis of acute aortic valve prolapse leading to cardiac arrest.

That afternoon, her condition remained unchanged. The temperature in the ICU was now turned up in a not-too-subtle hint that the doctors had given up.

The respiratory physician again advised that there was no improvement and confirmed that Suzanne had brain stem death (BSD). It is a term equated with death to describe a person on life-support system when faced with a decision whether or not to switch off the ventilator or to harvest organs for organ transplant. She advised John to consider switching off the ventilator as Suzanne was now dead and there was no hope of recovery. She added in medical history there were no cases of anybody recovering from BSD.

I contacted my friends in Singapore to pray for Suzanne.

We requested for a second opinion from a neurologist who examined her that afternoon. Her pupils were fixed and dilated. Vestibulo-ocular reflex was negative. She had a negative gag and cough reflex. There was no pain reflex in response to deep pressure over sternum, fingers, and eyebrow. She was flaccid, a-reflexic and there was no plantar response. His diagnosis was also that of brain stem death (BSD).

That evening, Suzanne looked dead. She was cold and clammy; facial discolouration had set in, especially under her eyes. There was also a smell of death about her. That evening, her children, Kim and Ian saw her for the first time after her collapse. The whole family was distraught. Everyone was grieving for Suzanne.

Later that night, I called Josie to update her on Suzanne’s condition. She spoke to John and prayed with him. She received the word “resurrection” and told John that God is our Healer and that He would resurrect all her brain cells.

Even as I prayed that night, I asked Father God where was Suzanne? He answered that she was with Him. I then asked whether she would be coming back. He said yes! I asked when but there was no answer. I then asked for a sign by Wednesday as I had scheduled to return to Singapore that afternoon. Comforted I went to sleep early that night.

Things started to turn around on Wednesday. Early that morning, the nurses noticed slight movement as they were sucking phlegm from her intubation tube. John excitedly called from hospital that early morning saying Suzanne had opened her eyes for the briefest moment several times!

We hurried down to the hospital. As we called her name there was response with twitching of her lips and movement of her eyebrows. She opened her eyes several times! We were all greatly encouraged.

Suzanne was then reassessed by the neurologist. When he called her name, there was no response. When he asked her to move her arm, again there was no response. However, when I called out her name, she opened her eyes. She also moved her fingers when I asked her to move her hand. Her pupils were still fixed and dilated with a negative doll’s eye reflex. There was grimacing of her face in response to deep pressure for pain over her fingers and sternum.

Strangely the neurologist still advised John that these signs were just autonomic responses. She also warned John not to raise false hopes of recovery as Suzanne had BSD!

At around noon, the respiratory physician noted there were further signs of recovery. Suzanne had started triggering the ventilator to breathe, about 5-10% of the breaths. By the time I left the hospital for the airport at about 1:30pm, she was initiating 100% of her breathing.

By that evening, there was movement of all her four limbs; with increasing episodes of eye movements. Her pupils were no longer fixed and dilated and she had regained her pupillary reflexes.

However she developed a fever. Her total white blood count was 34,500. Chest X-Ray showed lobar pneumonia, with bilateral infiltrates indicative of adult respiratory distress syndrome. Remarkably all these settled down within 24 hours.

On Thursday April 23, while being reassessed by her neurologist, John asked Suzanne to nod her head if she understood him. She did so. He then asked her to nod her head twice as the doctor was sceptical. Again she did so. By Friday April 24, Suzanne was fully conscious and able to recognise all who visited her.

Echo of heart: Ejection
Fraction had improved from 19% to 43%. (Her EF was back to normal by Monday 27 April).

Suzanne was extubated on Saturday April 25. She was able to talk shortly after that. Neurological examination revealed full and total recovery with no neurological deficits. I spoke to her that afternoon over the phone just before I testified in church of God’s power and amazing grace in bringing her back from the dead.

On Sunday April 26 morning, Suzanne was up and about and was able to shower herself. She even asked John to bring her facial wash and moisturiser.

She was discharged the following Tuesday.

As I shared her amazing testimony in Church Of Our Saviour again, on Sunday April 26 morning, a reporter from ‘The Newspaper’ was also present. Intending to hear Pastor Derek's sermon, she had no choice but to sit through my sharing of this miracle. It was then reported on the Monday April 27 edition of The Newspaper’s front page!

Up till today doctors are not able to ascertain what happened to Suzanne as all the tests have been negative. She is fully recovered and coming back to Singapore permanently this end June 2009 after spending 15 years in Hong Kong.

Suzanne remembers that while she was in coma, she dreamt that she was pinned down on the floor of an apartment she had earlier visited in Pandan Valley Singapore. She tried to get up but someone (she described it as an evil presence) prevented her from doing so.

She has been touched and changed by her experience and walking closer to God.

I hope that Suzanne’s miraculous resurrection will be a source of comfort, strength and encouragement of the reality of God’s amazing grace, mercy and goodness.

Revelation 19:10b states: “For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Let him or her who needs a miracle from God, claim one.”
Dr Alan Chin

Miraculous Escape From The Towering Inferno

This is a true story which was related in an email from one friend to another. I got this gripping story from a friend and I have read it many times and each time I am still stirred by the

amazing providence of God in delivering this man from what I believe was certain death. Who could forget the horrific and appalling crime committed by the terrorists when they struck the World Trade Center Twin Towers where thousands of innocent people were trapped in a horrendous inferno of hell that only the devil himself could have enacted? Yes, September 11, 2001 would forever remain a day of infamy in the minds of people whose lives were affected by the tragedy.

Tuesday, Sept 11, 2001 began like any other day for Bethel Assembly of God deacon and Sunday school superintendent Stanley Praimnath of Elmont, Long Island. He got up early, took a shower, prayed, got ready and headed for work. The drive was uneventful. The train ride was the same. Yet, this day he would see the hand of God spare his life.

Herein is the story as related partly by the protagonist, Stanley Praimnath himself.

“For some particular reason, I gave the Lord a little extra of myself that morning (during prayer),” Stanley said. “I said, ‘Lord, cover me and all my loved ones under your precious blood.’ And even though I said that and believed it, I said it over and over and over.”

When Stanley arrived at World Trade Center Tower Two, he took the elevator up to his office on the 81st floor. “I work for the Fuji Bank Limited,” he said. “I’m an assistant vice president in the loans operations department. The company is located on the 79th through 82nd floors.”

Stanley greeted Delise, a woman who had arrived before him. After talking briefly, he headed over to his desk and picked up his phone to retrieve his message.

“As I’m standing there retrieving my messages, I’m looking out at the next building, One World Trade, and I saw fire falling through from the roof,” Stanley said. “Now, this entire building is surrounded by glass, and you can stand up and from there you can see all the buildings, planes and everything flying at the same altitude.”

As Stanley saw “fire balls” coming down, his first reaction was to think of his boss who works in that building. He decided to try to call him to see if he was OK. “I’m dialing his number, and getting no response. So, I say to Delise, the temp, “Go, go, go – let’s get out.”

Delise and Stanley got on the elevator and went down to the 78th floor. Some other people were there. The company’s president, the CEO, the human resources director and two other men joined the group and headed down to the concourse level of Two World Trade Center.

If they had continued on and exited the building, all of their lives would have been spared. As it was, that’s not the way it happened.

“As soon as we reached the concourse level, the security guard stopped us and said, ‘Where are you going?’ Stanley explained about seeing the fire in Tower One. According to Stanley, the guard said, “Oh, that was just an accident. Two World Trade is secured. Go back to your office.”

That turned out to be fatal advice – aside from Stanley, Delise was the only one of that group to survive.

“We were joking, and I told [Human Resources Director] Brian Thompson, ‘This is a good time to think of relocating this building – it’s not safe anymore.’” Stanley headed back to his office, but before he got there, he told Delise, that with the events of the day, she should go home and relax.

Thompson went to the 82nd floor, the president and CEO went to the 79th floor and Stanley got out on the 81st floor. When Stanley got to his office, his phone was ringing. “It was someone from Chicago calling to find out if I’m watching the news,” he said. He told the caller everything “was fine.”

But everything wasn’t fine – far from it. As Stanley was talking, he looked up and saw United Air Lines Flight 175 heading straight for him.

“All I can see is this big gray plane, with red letters on the wing and on the tail, bearing down on me,” said Stanley. “But this thing is happening in slow motion. The plane appeared to be like 100 yards away, I said ‘Lord, You take control, I can’t help myself here.’”

Stanley then dove under his desk. “My Testament [Bible] was on top of my desk,” explained Stanley. “I knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the Lord was going to take care of me once I got there.” As he curled into a fetal position under his desk, the plane tore into the side of the building and exploded.

Miraculously, Stanley was unhurt. However, he could see a flaming wing of the plane in the doorway of his department. He knew he needed to get out of his office and the building fast. But, he was trapped under debris up to his shoulders.


Part 3 shows Stanley struggling in the raging inferno.

“Lord, you take control, this is your problem now,” he recalled praying. “I don’t know where I got this power from, but the good Lord, He gave me so much power and strength in my body that I was able to shake everything off. I felt like I was the strongest man alive.”

All the while, Stanley was asking the Lord to spare his life. “I’m crying and I’m praying, ‘Lord, I have things to do. I want to see my family, Lord, help me through.’”

Stanley’s office resembled a battle zone – walls flattened into dusty heaps, office equipment strewn violently, flames flickering about and rubble everywhere.

Part 4 shows Stanley diving beneath the table to avoid the crashing plane.

“Everything I’m trying to climb on [to get out] is collapsing and I’m going down,” he said. “I’m getting cuts and bruises, but I’m saying, ‘Lord, I have to go home to my loved ones, I have to make it, You have to help me.’”

Suddenly Stanley saw the light of a flashlight. For a moment, it stunned him. “What were the chances of someone bringing a flashlight to this floor?” he thought. “My first gut reaction was, “This is my guardian angel – my Lord sent somebody to save me!’”


Part 5 shows Stanley groping and struggling in the smoke filled semi darkness.

Stanley began screaming, “I see the light, I see the light.” But after clawing his way through the debris, he realized that he couldn’t get out – all the exits were blocked and his “guardian angel” couldn’t get to him – a wall was between him and the staircase. “He can’t get to me and I can’t get to him, and by this time I can’t breathe,” Stanley said. “I don’t know if it was sulfur or what [burning jet fuel, perhaps], but I can smell this thing. I got down on my knees and said, “Lord, you’ve got to help me. You’ve brought me this far, help me to get to the staircase.

But then Stanley did something surprising. While praying on his knees, he called out to the man behind the wall, “There’s one thing I got to know, do you know Jesus?” The man replied he went to church every Sunday. Then they prayed together to enable them to break through the wall.

“I got up, and I felt as if a power came over me,” said Stanley. “I felt goose bumps all over my body and I’m trembling, and I said to the wall, ‘You’re going to be no match for me and my Lord.’” Moments later, he punched his way through the wall and, with the help of the man on the other side, was able to squirm his way through the hole in the wall. “The guy held me and embraced me and he gave me a kiss and he said, ‘From today, you’re my brother for life.’”


Part 6 shows how Stanley managed to get through the wall to Brian and eventually to safety.

But the danger wasn’t over. The man on the other side of the wall, who introduced himself as Brian, was an older man and they still had 81 floors to walk down, with the building on fire and, unknown to them, in danger of collapse. “We hobbled our way down, and at every floor we stopped to see if anybody was there, but nobody was, except a man was on the floor, and his back was gone, and he was covered in blood.”

Stanley asked to be allowed to carry the man out, but a security guard told him it would be better to send somebody up. When they finally made it down to the concourse, only firefighters were there. “They were saying, ‘Run! Run! Run!’, they were telling us to run out, but they were not concerned about themselves,” he said.

Stanley and Brian would have run from the building, but now the concourse was surrounded with fire. Wetting themselves under the building’s sprinkler system, they held hands and ran through the flames to safety at Trinity Church, about two blocks away. “I wanted to go to the church to thank God,” Stanley explained, “As soon as I held on to the gate of that church, the building [World Trade Center Tower Two] collapsed.”

Stanley and Brian made their way safely out of the danger area. Before they parted, Stanley gave his business card to Brian in hopes of contact at a later time, and said, “If I don’t see you, I’ll see you in heaven.”

Cut and bloodied, with clothes tattered and wearing a borrowed shirt, Stanley finally made it home hours later to his wife, Jennifer, and his two girls, Stephanie, 8, and Caitlin, 4. “I held my wife and my two children and we cried,” said Stanley. After thanking God for sparing his life, Stanley told God whatever he did, it will always be for His glory. “I’m so sore, but every waking moment, I say ‘Lord, had you not been in control, I would not have made it.’

“For some divine reason, I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the good Lord’s mighty hand turned the plane a fraction from where I was standing,” said Stanley. “Because when it crash-landed, it was just 20 feet from me. I don’t care who would rationalize – what people would say now or years from now, but I know it was the handiwork of the Lord that turned that plane. My Lord Jesus is bigger than the Trade Center and His finger can push a plane aside!”

Now, is not that a wonderful testimony of the all encompassing faithfulness and protection of God for those who put their trust in Him? Yes, even if I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil (Psalm 23: 4). And in psalm 91:7 it says:

A thousand may fall at your side,

ten thousand at your right hand,

but it will not come hear you.

Yes, on that day Stanley literally witnessed thousands of people falling around him but his life was saved because he trusted in God.