She was clinically dead for 17 hours so her family started making funeral plans — then she woke up with one heartfelt request
A loved one’s death is perhaps one of the worst pains to experience. However, while carrying all the pain, family members have to find strength and prepare for the last rites. It can be a challenging situation, during which many hope their deceased ones come back. In the case of Velma Thomas’ family, this wish became a reality, reported The Telegraph. The woman from Nitro, West Virginia, suffered a cardiac arrest and was pronounced dead at the hospital. However, 17 hours later, she began to show signs of life, leaving her family shocked. In no time, she escaped death and made one simple request.
Thomas suffered a cardiac arrest at home. She was given CPR and there was a slight heartbeat for a brief moment. However, while she was being rushed to the hospital, her heart stopped twice. She had to be immediately put on life support, but soon, it was clear that she was on her deathbed. Despite strenuous efforts from doctors, they were unable to find a pulse or heartbeat. For 17 hours, the doctors observed and tried their best to bring her back to life, but all in vain. Her son Tim called relatives and loved ones to pray together, hoping to get his mum back. "I said, 'God, just show me something,'" her nephew Daniel Pence recalled, per ABC News.
Unfortunately, he noticed that she began to show signs of decaying. “I concluded she wasn't going to make it. Her skin had already started hardening, her hands and toes were curling up, they were already drawn. There was no life there,” he recalled, per The Daily Mail. “There were really no signs she had neurological functions,” Kevin Eggleston, an internist, told ABC News. After finding no pulse, blood pressure or any signs of life, the family bid her a heart-wrenching goodbye and began to make preparations for her funeral. Tim thought it was the “right decision” to get her off life support so the family could see her one last time.
While the family was grieving and pushing themselves to make things work, a miracle was underway. To everyone’s surprise, after the woman was taken off life support, she began to move. The nurses noticed her slight movement 10 minutes after she was off the ventilator and were shocked. "She moved her arm and we thought it was reflexes," Pence recalled. However, it was more than just a reflex, it was life coming back slowly and miraculously. In a matter of minutes, she had a heartbeat and was showing signs of life. The woman gradually woke up and made one specific request. “Where is my son?” she asked.
Fortunately, Tim was not too far and one can only imagine the heart-melting reunion that it might have been for the mother and son, as well as, the entire family. Doctors and the staff were too stunned to explain the scenario. “There are things that as physicians and nurses, we can't always explain. I think this is one of those cases,” Dr. Eggleston said. “It's a miracle. The odds were certainly against her,” he mentioned.