"Against All Odds, My Son Survived"

On the day before March 22, 1990, our lives too a dramatic turn, that let me know how powerful God is. My son was twenty - three months old almost to make two years old, an my grandson was one year old. My daughter and her son lived with me and she worked night shift as a nurse for a nursing home. Both boys had really bad congested colds and I didn't want to chance them getting pneumonia, so I took them to the doctor and got cough medication and some antibiotics. I started them on the medication and they play around the house with each other. That day I picked and cleaned some pinto beans, put them in soak and cooked them and made red beans and rice.

What I didn't realize was one the pinto beans had fallen on the floor, without my knowledge. On march 22, 1990 early in the morning the boys got up playing and I could tell they were feeling better, but I was still so tired and sleepy from the nights; I had been up with them before, so without trying to; I fell back a sleep and my son came back  to me, choking on something,  I jumped up picked him up and tried to get what ever that was  in his throat out. I tried patting him on the back, and everything else to no avail, so I ran to my daughter room and told her he's choking and I can't get it out , she grabbed him and tried all kinds of things, we were so upset neither one of us thought about the Heimlich maneuver, she told me to go get ready to take to the hospital.

I put on my hose coat, I was screaming to the top of my lung s for God to save him, and I could hear  her my daughter saying we're losing him, oh, God I cried save my child, I died a thousand deaths that day and my daughter finally said,I got him breathing enough to get to the hospital, so lets go. I drove like a mad Women to the hospital with a blowing horn and flashing lights;  when we got  to the hospital the nurses rushed out, we told them he was choking and we couldn't get the object out, she took him and that was the last we saw him.

So, there we sit in our night clothes, not knowing whether art not we would see him alive again or what, everything happen so fast that there wasn't any time for anything to register to us. I was so so scared of losing my child that all I did was to pray and ask God to have mercy on mine child and me, My heart was still beating so fast , it felt like it was in my throat and I tried to deep breathe to get it to calm down. my daughter told me before she got my son breathing again that his eyes was fixed and dilated and she almost called quits but she didn't want her little brother to die, so she started back breathing and he finally started up again but it was very hard for him to breathe so she breathed for him until we could get him to the hospital.

The doctor finally came out an told us , he was still alive but they had to put him on a respirator until they could find out what the problem was, the fact they he was still alive was a blessing to me; but I didn't know whether he was going to make it. we prayed and I went t the chapel and I found a King James version of the bible and I ask God is my my son going to live/ and we know God have his ways of answering us; so I was lead to read Psalms 102 for whatever reason. I started reading and when I got the 20th verse, I had my answer from God The verse read: To hear the groaning of the prisoner; to loose those that are appointed to death. That was my answer from God and I praised his name and I thanked God for answering my prayer but I was still scared to death, because he was just a baby.

My daughter sat there waiting hoping against hope for good news, we almost felt like we playing a part in the Twilght Zone, but this was real life circumstances. I sat there and realized if my daughter had given up on him he would be one dead little boy and thought alone caused me to burst in to tears and daughter said mom, you know God answer prayers and I said yes, I had  to agree with her. After hour of waiting, the doctor came back and said ; that he was going to have to do surgery; and find out what caused his problem, He told us, if it was liquid in the lungs they could get it out; but if it;s a hard object ,that was going to be a problem because the hospital didn't have the tool to get out hard objects, but when you got  Doctor Jesus working on your case for you, he supplies all that's needed.

After the surgery was over the doctor came out and told us that my son had swallowed a Pinto bean, and that their was a doctor in the hospital that had the tool that they needed to remove the Pinto bean ; and that  I could say was Thank  you Jesus ,Thank you Jesus, because if it was for him supplying all our needs then, none of this would have happen. The doctor told me also for little babies that has gotten things in their lungs a lot of them don't survive because of the pneumonia they contract after the surgery, but God performed another miracle for us, my son didn't get pneumonia at all.  we so many miracles working for that day and we had the sense to know it, and Thank God for it.

The doctor had given my son steroids, because his little had been through such a traumatic experience; to calm his body . We were blessed with so many miracles day, until right now to day, I thank God and get teary eyed because had it not been for the goodness of God my baby wouldn't have lived to see his 21st birthday. My son was hospitalized for eleven days, and they even took a picture of him to go with their almost impossible cases. He had gotten so fat from the water weight and weight from the steroids, but I didn't care because he 's alive; and he's going to be alright and that was all I cared about. God truly answered my prayers and my son lived against all odds but he only survived by the grace of a powerful and living God.

My daughter didn't know it, but she also was my guardian angel; that day she helped me to hold it together and get through it. I have always had great reasons to testify on behalf of God's goodness. Against All Odds my survived and at 21 years old , he's raising cane about this or that ,now , I just thank God that I was able to tell some one else about the goodness of God's love and grace.

Benny Faye Douglass