God Loves to Do the Impossible

It was two days before Christmas of 1994, when I received the phone call from my older brother David. David lives in California and I didn't receive many calls from him. I listened intently to his gratuitous "How ya doin'," wondering what really brought him to call me. Then he popped the question. "Listen. Pamela's breathing has dropped below 30% and she is totally on oxygen to breathe now. The USC Hospital can save her life by a living-related donor operation. I am willing to give her one of my lower lobes, but she needs two. You are the only other person available to give her the other lobe. She won't last much longer, so you have to decide. I know it's a lot to ask, but she's our sister."

I was unprepared to answer this question, having it sprung on me so. I told David I would have to call him back later with my decision after I spoke with my family about it. I thought at first it was because of my wife and four children, or maybe it was because I was healthy all my life. But after I wrestled with it for awhile, I realized it was because I did not know God's will in it.

My sister Pamela was not the first to suffer to the point of death with Cystic Fibrosis. An older sister Gaynor spent endless years in and out of hospitals while the disease robbed her of precious breath. After CF tormented her and the whole family to the point of despair, she died at the old age of 31 (CF normally develops at birth and destroys a life by age twelve or so). As with Gaynor, Pamela didn't see the beginnings of the disease until her teenage years. Now she had a chance to effectively start living again with new lungs. Who wouldn't do that for their own sister? However, I had learned form past experience that "Gods ways are higher."

Early in 1993, my 81-year-old father went into the hospital for what seemed to be an irregular kidney. During the examination, the doctors saw what looked like a golfball-sized mass in the one kidney. The surgeon informed him he would have to remove it the next morning. However, he told my father, "Due to your age and your weak heart, I have to tell you that you have no more than a 10% chance of living through the operation." My father looked at him and asked, "What if I don't have the operation?" "Well," said the surgeon, "The cancer will spread and you will die a slow, agonizing death. It's not a pretty sight." My father did not hesitate to say, "Do the operation."

We were very concerned and called Christian friends, radio station prayer lines, and anyone, beside ourselves, who had a heart for prayer. By morning, my wife Kathy asked me if I was going to fly to Kentucky to be with him. I said, "No. God has given me peace and I know he is going to be fine." Kathy smiled and replied, "He gave me the same feeling about it." We called and my sister Mary told us he smiled and waved as he went into surgery. I took it as a sign that God told him all would go well also. Everyone seemed to be amazed that the surgeons found the cancerous mass and that it did not spread the slightest bit. In fact, the same surgeon who said he would most assuredly die had to admit that each of his organs were like a young man's.

Later in that same year, my sister Mary was blessed with a second child. However, due to complications she had to have a caesarean. After the operation, the surgeon said that her new son was beautiful, but he had found an orange-sized mass of cancerous tissue floating in her womb. He recommended a hospital visit in a couple of days for x-rays to make sure she didn't have more. What he didn't have the courage to tell her was told to her by four surgeons who informed her that the surgeon had looked around and seen tumors literally riddling every noticeable organ in her body. They recommended immediate exploratory surgery to determine the extent of her cancer and to see if it was in the lymph nodes yet.

Emotions were high, but we began praying and enlisting prayer warriors. This time, however, the Lord put it on my heart to pray with real centurion-like faith. So, I prayed without abandon that the doctors would go in to explore and find nothing there. It was close to Christmas, so Mary said she didn't want the surgery until after Christmas and close to the new year. The surgeons argued that the cancer would have time to spread to the lymph nodes by then and recommended strongly that it was dangerous to wait. She would not budge on the issue. After a couple weeks of fervent prayer, she went into surgery. Many were surprised when they reported that they didn't find a trace of cancer and only a few benign tumors in fatty tissue. many explain-it-away comments have been offered, but my sister and my father know different and are praising the Lord.

Now it was Pamela's time. I prayed that the Lord would show me a sign or two so I would know whether He wanted to heal Pamela miraculously, or to have me donate a lobe to her. One way or another, I would trust His judgment.

Because my family was on the edge waiting for me to act, I decided to proceed with the assumption that God wanted the operation until He showed me otherwise. My first battle was how to get paid sick pay the whole time I was in California for the operation. I had started a new job six months previous and had not accumulated any vacation. According to the rules of personnel, sick pay could only be allowed in the case of "accident or illness," neither of which applied, and was determined only in the case of "medical necessity." Pamela's life was a necessity, but my lobectomy was actually a voluntary procedure. I appealed anyway, and the decision was the first sign of my fleece set before God. In an unprecedented decision, the company decided to cover my absence during the operation as sick leave.

On January 5, 1995, I reached Pamela's insurance representative who informed me that they did not cover the two living-related donors' portion of her operation or any related expenses as a matter of policy. Then the shocker came. The cost of each donors' operation at USC was to be $28,500 and the cost for each donor to test for compatibility was around $6,000. There was no way that my brother or I could afford these procedures. This is the point that I knew that it was really out of our hands entirely.

I was determined that, if this operation was God's will, He would provide the money. When David found out that the donors were not covered, he told me, "I'm going to look into finding an organized, tax-deductable, fund raiser." I told him that I didn't believe we should give up on Pamela's insurance company and that I planned to appeal their decision. He told me, "If Pamela's insurance company changes it's mind and covers the donors, you'll be able to knock me over with a feather." I immediately pictured this and then set to work with a transplant financial counselor from USC.

The financial counselor and I began thinking creatively how to appeal to this large insurance company to cover the donors also. The phone calls from Texas to California were staggering and we managed to pull together statistics proving it to be cheaper for Pamela's insurance to cover her and the donors globally than to cover the expenses of her cystic fibrosis over the long haul. We gathered evidence that this living-related donor operation was very successful and a sound procedure beyond that of anything experimental. And we also weighed in the factors showing that Pamela would not survive an over-two-year waiting list for cadaver donations.

Finally, i knew the appeal would take much more than fancy paperwork and figures, so Kathy, the children, and I decided to make a journal of prayer requests and show how each were answered. We knew this was a good way to track God's will in a matter and to make sure that we prayed specifically for answers to needs. The following list shows the prayers we wrote down and prayed for followed by each way in which God responded:

Prayer 1. For the hearts of the decision panel at Pamela's insurance provider to be softened and that there would be a favorable decision about including the donors in the overall coverage.

God replied: Yes. he not only had them decide to cover us all (donors included), but the insurance company agreed to cover 100% of all the medical expenses. That included Pamela's medicine for the follow-up.

Prayer 2. That the three families involved in the operation would not get into debt or any financial burden, as a result of the hospital costs, that would be against God's will for our lives.

God replied: Yes. He made it possible for us to honor Him by staying out of debt , even to the extent of the outside expenses that have been covered to the penny by donations to the fund my brother David started.

Prayer 3. That the faith of all the family members involved, and those who learn about the situation, would grow from the outcome of this needed operation.

God replied: Yes. I witnessed several changes of heart and faith in my family members during my stay in California and afterward. God is still working these miracles and changes.

Prayer 4. That the side appeal to my own company's insurance to cover my lobectomy as an elective surgery and deem it as a "medical necessity."

God replied: No. I was able to see that God wanted to work this through total coverage by Pamela's insurance.

Prayer 5. That Pamela would be completely and miraculously healed of cystic fibrosis, before the surgery, through prayer.

God replied: No. God showed me His will was to put us through the growth and experience of the operation.

Prayer 6. That the medicine Pamela was taking to combat a problem of wheezing would no longer be needed, so the surgery could be accomplished at the scheduled time.

God replied: Yes. This happened and did not become a problem for the surgery. In addition, she contracted a sinus blockage, just days before the operation was scheduled, and it did not stop the surgery.

Prayer 7. That the coverage from Pamela's insurance would provide for the compatibility testing for my brother David and me.

God replied: Yes. It turned out that God softened the hearts of two hospital presidents who agreed to donate the tests to my brother and me without cost. David and I live in two different states.

Prayer 8. That somehow I would be able to afford the trip out to California for the operation without incurring debt for my family.

God replied: Yes. One of the major airlines heard of our decision to help our sister. A person in a high position there had a brother who died because he needed a kidney and could not find a donor in time. In this way, God prepared that person's heart. She called me at my office and said that the airline would be happy to provide free round trip tickets to California and back when I needed to fly out for the operation.

Prayer 9. That God would give the surgeons wisdom and guide their hands during the operation.

God replied: Yes. All three operations went exceptionally smooth and without any complications. Complications could have easily included air leaks in the lungs or rejection.

Prayer 10. That there would be no infection around Pamela, David, or me after the operation and that all would go well.

God replied: Yes. This was a vital prayer, especially for my sister Pamela, but God did not let any of us get any infections beyond what was normal.

Prayer 11. That Pamela, David, or I would heal so quickly after the operation that the doctors would have to say "God did it."

God replied: Yes. The doctors were amazed how all three of us broke records in recovery time. I was ready to be released from the hospital in a record six days. the doctors all stood over his bed and marveled. My brother was released two days later (also a record). My sister was home in two weeks. Normally, she would have been in the hospital for at least one month. The doctors all marveled at what God had done.

This reminded me of what happened in Matthew 19:26 when Jesus answered His disciples' quandary about having to be without sin to enter heaven. When they asked Him "Then who could be saved?", Jesus told them, "By human resources, this is impossible; for with God everything is possible." The same things held true about the events I have just explained. No human could have done this; only God. He loves to do the impossible.

 Michael A., Palestine, Texas, USA