Thursday, October 31, 2013

A miracle of the Theotokos and Sts. Kosmas and Damian

The Most-holy Theotokos sweetly embracing Christ (source)
 
A miracle of the Theotokos and Sts. Kosmas and Damian

My name is Athena Pappas. 10/24/2008, my son Spyridon had a most serious accident. He was hit in the head, and had hemorrhage in his brain, dead cells which never regrow, and swelling in the center of his brain. He was in the ICU of N.N.A., and for 29 very difficult days he was in a coma, intubated, because he could not breathe, and he had begun internal sepsis in his organs. The culmination was the 45 minute [cardiac] arrest which occurred 3 days before the feast of Panagia (The Entrance to the Temple). After his arrest, his little heart suffered from insufficiency, which he would have for his whole life.

My son was 16 years old when the accident occurred. We did not know what to ask God for. The doctors said that, if he would live, he would remain a vegetable because the trauma to the brain was in a place where information is processes. After the arrest, and while he was still in a coma, he continued to worsen. He did not breathe, his organs were not working, and from the blood they took they knew he had an infection, and a 40 degree [Celsius] fever. My husband and I entreated God either to raise him, because we did not know what to ask for first. The next day after the arrest, we had the Divine Liturgy served at St. Spyridon, the church which was in the yard of the hospital. The liturgy ended around 10AM. When they opened the visiting hours at 1PM, we learned that our spiritual father, Fr. Stephanos Dalianes, had passed by and read to our child in the ICU, at the command of Fr. Paisios and Fr. Eumenios, who had previously reposed. We went into his room, and, O the wonder, the child from the neck and below was raised. His fever was 36.6 degrees, his kidneys were working properly, he had much urine and stool, and he was breathing on his own, without machines. Furthermore, his heart was working by itself, without machines.

The doctors told us that this was a miracle. Straightaway (besides his head, as he was still in a coma), his body worked like a clock. If he continued in this way, they told us, in two days he would exit the ICU. But regarding his brain, they told us that he would remain a vegetable...

In two days was the feast of the Entrance of the Theotokos. In the morning, we had Divine Liturgy served again at St. Spyridon, and we left to go to the Tzaneio hospital, for we would transfer our son there. As we were going to the hospital, I began to scream hysterically: “The Panagia cried, and I want you to bring me her tears. She is crying for my Spyro.” My sister and my husband tried to calm me down, but I was adamant and very hostile with them, because they did not believe me. I cried out continuously that Panagia somewhere in Oropos was crying for my Spyro, but everyone thought that I was crazy. I didn;t know what I said, but I insisted greatly, to the point that the doctors at the hospital and the patients tried to calm me down. I was adamant. However, as the time passed, the ambulance transferring our son to the other hospital was nowhere to be found. I grumbled regarding the tears of Panagia, and I was worried why they were delayed in transferring my child. At 1:30PM they arrived. I was crying greatly, and I was asking my relatives to bring me the tears of Panagia until I saw the gurney and the doctors who were bringing my son...The doctors were smiling...My child had woken up on the road, and that was why they were late in bringing him...
 
Panagia appearing and healing in the operating room (source)
   
I saw my child awake, and I couldn't believe it. His eyes were in place and the blood that he had in his eyes had disappeared. He woke up. At that point, we didn't know what was working and what wasn't, because he was just looking at us...He still had his tracheostomy and gastrostomy...

As soon as we set up the child in his room, again I began to cry and to fight with the others. I said: “Panagia is crying for my Spyro. Go and bring me her tears.” No one understood me, no one believed me. No one paid any attention... In roughly two hours, while we were washing my son, my cell phone rang. It was a friend of mine, who asked which hospital and which room we were at. As soon as she came, I asked her: “Did you bring me the tears of Panagia?” She looked at me, and said that her mother-in-law had gone to Oropos, but first she went to church to light a cande. There she learned that the icon of Panagia gushes forth myrrh, and every year, on the feast of the Entrance of the Theotokos, they open the frame to take the myrrh. She took some myrrh for herself, and thought about me, and asked the priest for some for me. She gave it to her daughter-in-law to give it to me. Without a second thought, I took the myrrh from her hands, rolled it into the shape of a pill, and put it through the gastrostomy with the syringe. Then I calmed down, and was justified ultimately to my relatives.

That evening around 1:30 2 doctors entered the room, stood above the child looking at him, said something among themselves, and then left. I told my sister to run to the hallway to ask them what they saw, but she didn't see them. The next morning, as I went to take Holy Communion in the chapel of this hospital, I saw the icon of the Holy Unmercenaries [Sts. Kosmas and Damian], and they had the same faces as those doctors who had come. From that day on, the results were spectacular. They took out the tracheostomy from my Spyro, along with the gastrostomy, and he began to communicate, and slowly began to walk in a week or so. The echocardiogram showed that he had a new heart, and the MRI of the brain looked as if he was never hit. We left the hospital on the feast of St. Spyridon, walking. The doctors told us: “We don't know what you believe in, but all science cannot explain these things.”

I should say furthermore that the cross that our spiritual father brought us to the ICU, and crossed our child with, turned red. Panagia covered our child, and so humble were the Saints who raised up our Spyro, and today, he is totally well.
(Amateur translation of text from: source)
   
Sts. Kosmas and Damian the Holy Unmercenaries and Wonderworkers (source)
   
Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us! Amen!

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