This situation actually started in 1999. I gained a substantial amount of weight from June through December of 1999 to the tune of 58 pounds. I also had a chronic cough.
My wife told some people at work about my weight gain and cough and one person said her mother who had the same symptoms. Her mother finally went to the doctor and found out that she was in congestive heart failure and recently died.
I do not usually find myself at doctor’s offices, but I made an appointment for a December Saturday morning. Dr. Van had the unfortunate responsibility to inform me that my heart was struggling and I needed to see a heart specialist right away. He prescribed Lasix, a medicine that is a diuretic and a potassium supplement. During the first eight days I lost 34 pounds of water.
Dr. Van referred me to a highly regarded heart specialist in our area, Dr. Gary Brown. Dr. Brown examined me and ordered an echo cardiogram (sonogram of the heart). The echo cardiogram confirmed both doctors’ initial beliefs about what was going on. My heart was enlarged and functioning very poorly. An ejection point percentage (the amount of blood pumped each time) was only 15-20%. A normal ejection point is between 55-65%. I was in serious congestive heart failure!
Dr. Brown prescribed medications and explained to us that my prognosis was very poor. I needed a heart transplant within the next five years if I was going to live. I had only a 20% chance of survival without it. Finding the right donor and making it through that surgery is monumental. Wow! What a shock.
Needless to say this news was unbelievable to hear and very hard to tell others around us. It was so difficult to share with our teenage daughter Bethany. She took the news very hard. She coped by internalizing her distress and the anxiety weighed her down.
In February of 2000, Dr. Brown performed a heart catherization and angiogram allow him to get more specific information on the performance of my heart. My ejection point percentage at that time was not much of an increase; only 20%. Additionally, my heart was three times larger than normal. My valves were still closing all the way which was positive news. The prognosis was still the same because of the low ejection point percentage and enlargement of the heart.
Many people told me they were praying for me. I really began to feel convicted about waiting for an answer to prayer for me but not praying for others who had needs. I thought that if God was going to help us that I needed to show my faith by praying for others. So I started going to an intercessory prayer group that met on Thursday evenings.
During the next year of 2000, three different groups of people anointed me with oil and prayed. My wife's boss brought a group together for prayer. Terry _______ invited a group of work associates and other concerned people in the community, some who knew my wife and some who knew me. Others were strangers who cared. Another group of close friends prayed for me and a third was made up of the Senior High School prayer group.
During the summer the youth in our church have a week long camp. They arrive in the morning and leave after a full day of worship, teaching, outreach, and fun. During that week I picked up our daughter and her best friend from the church in the evening. When I went inside to find the girls, I was unbelievably moved by the spiritual outpouring of prayer and love I saw from them. I was also privileged to hear their conversations on the way home in the van, which were centered on the work of God in them and others at the camp. They had started attending a youth prayer group after camp ended.
Each month I would see Dr. Brown and he would modify my medications. My ability to work for long hours began to diminish which took its toll on us financially and that added greatly to the stress! The Lord moved people to provide money for our mortgage and other bills from time to time so his care was evident to us.
During all this time my prayer was – Lord, give me, us, strength to make it through this. My wife's boss, told me his prayer for us was going to be more for more specific healing, not just strength to make it through. Many other friends also mentioned that this was also to be their prayer. I always thanked everyone for their encouraging words and I truly could feel God’s arm around my shoulders and he did give me strength.
I really was unaware how hard this all was on my daughter. She told us later that her greatest fear filled her mind with “Will my dad get to see me graduate? Will he see me get married? Will my children ever know him?” Her senior high group asked me to come into their room one evening so that they could pray for me. I cried as the group of ten teenagers and some leaders anointed me with oil and cried out to God for healing. What an experience to see teenagers act so selflessly and to be so concerned for another, crying and asking God to intervene.
Then about the same time, my wife, daughter and their friends went to a prayer meeting at our church on a Friday evening. During The meeting, my wife and daughter went forward for prayer for my heart. While several people were praying with them, the two friends also came forward to pray for me.
I did not go to that meeting because I was very tired. I was in bed reading and getting sleepy when I had a dream/vision of my daughter and her best friend coming into the bedroom followed by my wife and her best friend. As they all got closer to the bed I could see that _______ hands were cupped in front of her and that a gold beating heart was in them. She bent down and put the gold heart on my chest and then backed away. As the heart beat it sank into my chest leaving behind only the gold. That was it.
I kind of woke up, then went soundly to sleep. The next day my wife asked what if anything went on with me the previous night while they were praying. I shared with her my dream/vision. She asked me about what time in the evening this happened. I told her midnight, which was the very same time she and the others were in prayer!
I had my regular appointment with the doctor in another month and I kept praying for strength. In October I had my second electrocardiogram to see if my situation had progressed. Dr. Brown was not present at the test, but would share the results in three weeks at my appointment. During this time, one of the teenagers created a golden heart from a model he painted and placed it in a decorative wooden box for me. I still cherish that gift.
When I met with Dr. Brown we discussed the results. My ejection point percentage had risen to 45% - a 25% jump. Dr. Brown said that was great and almost unheard of in his 25 years practicing as a specialist. He told me that my prognosis had just gone up 1,000 times and that by the medical definition of congestive heart failure I no longer had it!
I then asked about the size of my heart.I wanted to know if it had grown larger? He looked at the report, then back at the previous report, then back again. He did this over again and even asked my birth date to verify that the report was mine. He told me that my heart had actually reduced in size and that never happens. I told him a lot of people had been praying and I just thanked God.
When I began telling people the results they rejoiced, praised God and some cried. My daughter sent out e-mails to all of her friends and youth leaders. Part of her e-mail include the line that ”Now my Dad will be able to see me graduate, get married, and even have children.” That is when I really knew the burden she had carried.
It was an unbelievable miracle! Dr. Brown said he could not think of a better diagnosis to give someone just before the holidays. You can imagine how we celebrated on Thanksgiving of 2000.
I feel thankful, humbled, and overwhelmed by this miracle as I ponder, why me? So many others have needs not yet fulfilled. My only hope is that this testimony will give others hope and strength in the knowledge that God does care and people care as well. It was a whole year of wondering and hoping and hanging on…don’t give up…
This miracle was made possible by another miracle. That miracle was the coming of Jesus to earth to show us his sacrificial love. It is through belief and receiving of this miracle that we can have hope for tomorrow as well as eternity.
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
Mike Butler
