A pastor mistakenly declared brain-dead by doctors finally returns home, and the whole family praises God for the victory, “God over Medicine.”
Declared Brain-Dead
In August 2022, Grace Baptist Church pastor Ryan Marlow was rushed to a hospital in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina. He suffered from a listeria infection, eventually leading to a deadly brain injury. Of which a month later, doctors declared him brain dead.
WXII 12 News. Pastor Ryan Marlow and wife Meghan. YouTube, March 2023, Retrieved from: https://www.christianpost.com/news/pastor-who-was-wrongfully-declared-brain-dead-returns-home.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook
His wife, Meghan Marlow, recalled how the doctor informed them of Ryan’s condition.
“The doctor came out [of husband’s hospital room] with about 20 other people as my witness,” she recounted. “And said your husband has clinically passed. He is clinically deceased. He has passed away, he has suffered neurological death.”
Little Hope
And because they had already declared the pastor dead, they immediately wrote his time of death on the chart. Then they processed his documents, especially that he was “an organ donor.”
Ryan’s Recovery. Pastor Declared Brain-Dead Returning Home. Facebook, 5 Mar. 2023, https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100086038675856
So, with the wife’s permission, the hospital began searching for matches on his organs. But despite being declared dead, doctors kept Ryan “on life support until they found all of the donors.”
Meghan could barely accept her husband’s death. So, she grieved for the next few days while waiting for organ matches. Then the doctor called a night before Ryan’s scheduled day to take off his life support. He told her Ryan wasn’t brain-dead but still in critical condition.
God Over Medicine
Finally, on the day Ryan’s organs were scheduled to be harvested, a family member saw his feet move. It surprised the wife, who found herself clinging to that little hope. So, she asked everyone to leave the room to speak to her husband.
Ryan’s Recovery. Pastor Declared Brain-Dead Returning Home. Facebook, 5 Mar. 2023, https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100086038675856
“I told Ryan all the things that I wanted to tell him,” she said. “That I loved him, people were taking care of me. That God was gonna make sure our babies were taken care of and it was gonna be alright. And at the very end I tell him, ‘If you’re inside of there and you can hear me, I need you to fight. I need you to fight like crazy. Because I’m about to stop this process of organ donating and we’re gonna get some tests done because I don’t know what’s going on.”
Today, after six months of staying at the hospital, Ryan finally returned home. And the whole family praises God for the miracle. They had the entire family wear white shirts with a printed message at the back, “This Family Fights Together! God over Medicine.”
Ryan’s Recovery. Pastor Declared Brain-Dead Returning Home. Facebook, 5 Mar. 2023, https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100086038675856
Reference | The Christian Post
Header Image: Ryan’s Recovery. Pastor Declared Brain-Dead Returning Home. Facebook, 5 Mar. 2023, https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100086038675856
