Stephanie

A letter from Stephanie's parents:

To all those who have been praying for Stephanie and the rest of the family.

As we reflect back on all that has happened in the last 11 weeks we realise that it is made up of a whole series of miracles. We give God the glory and thank you for praying. At times we were overwhelmed by the sense of everyone's love and concern. We also knew a strength and support beyond ourselves. God gave us a verse as we left Greece (Exodus 19:4) - "You yourselves know how I brought you out of Egypt on the wings of an eagle to be with myself. This is our testimony that we had a strong sense of being carried by God, through and out of all the difficult times we had experienced.

I want to list the miracles and the examples of God's provision to increase your faith. One of the questions I was left with immediately after Greece was 'what have we done to deserve all of this grace and favour?' Partly the answer is bound up in the definition of grace - there is nothing we can do to deserve anything good from God; that is just his nature. More important is the realisation that this grace is available to all and hence we have a determination to draw on this source to see others healed and transformed and not just keep it to ourselves.

The first miracle is that Stephanie survived the initial impact with the car. The vehicle that had swerved out of control and hit her on the pavement, knocking her through the air was dented and had a smashed headlight. Stephanie's body and face were not injured in this impact beyond minor bruising and a scrape on her leg from the ground. The head injury was from hitting the pavement. Her thyroid and larynx were internally crushed (since healed) but her neck was not broken - we have met many people in wheelchairs since, both in Greece and Wrexham.

A man in Inverness had a dream we believe was about the accident - two girls on holiday were crossing the road; one escaped but the other was badly injured. He woke up and started praying for God's protection for these unknown girls. Immediately after the accident two English, Greek-speaking doctors appeared. They took charge of caring for Stephanie at the scene of the accident, phoned for an ambulance and explained in Greek to the ambulance drivers the priorities for her treatment. Later the hospital commented that this was significant in keeping her alive. We are still wondering if these were angels or a supernatural provision of real people who just 'happened' to be at a particular place on the island of Zakynthos at 2 am on a Saturday morning in July. We have heard of no-one who had seen them before or since the incident.

We want to praise the skills of the doctors in Greece. On two occasions there were surgical interventions to relieve the pressure within the skull. Both times were life-threatening with literally minutes to spare before the restricted blood supply to the brain would have caused death. The major miracle then was that having come that close to brain death that there was absolutely no brain damage. Yes there has been a recovery period but for her brain this can be measured as two to three weeks. Stephanie has not needed any rehabilitation treatment. The physiotherapy she has received is all aimed at building up muscles and strength after many weeks in intensive care. Everything has 'worked' since she woke up.

Pneumonia caused by an antibiotic resistant bug was the next threat. It was 10 days into the infection before the results of a sample culture showed that there was only one antibiotic that it was susceptible to and that was not one that had been used so far in her treatment. She had survived thus far only by her body's strength and your prayers. We were told then it could be 3 - 4 weeks to kill the bug using Colestin. In fact it took 18 days which still feels a long time but I now realise was quite a triumph. We nicknamed the bug 'Pharaoh' because it kept resisting and was refusing to let Stephanie go (back to the UK) and we certainly rebuked it like Moses did in the bible stories. Much of this time was in intensive care following respiratory failure and was probably the most difficult part of Stephanie's treatment because she was largely awake, not sedated and sometimes distressed. She had needed a tracheotomy which meant we could not hear her speak. Communication was difficult.

It also meant the insurance company doctor was reluctant to authorise Stephanie's repatriation. This was a specific topic for prayer and I can pinpoint the moment when this was resolved - the man I was dealing with in the insurance company decided to consult a different doctor who immediately put plans in motion to get us home. This happened 5 days later and was neither too soon (lung recovery was just about adequate) nor too late (panic and anxiety attacks in the open ward were making her care difficult).

The label 'post traumatic stress syndrome' reared its ugly head and certainly there has been a period of increased anxiety and panic attacks with a measure of depression about appearance and the impact on her life. This has mainly been the effect of the treatment rather than any memory of the actual accident. However she has been at home a month now and most of these symptoms have disappeared. A number of people have been praying to see all the effects of the trauma lifted off and I believe it has happened.

So Stephanie is well on the road to a full recovery. She has put back on about a third of the 35lb she lost in Greece. She is expecting the operation to rebuild her skull to happen in a few weeks time so by God's grace she should be fully fit by Christmas. She has a lot of determination to get back to 'normal' and is enjoying each measure of progress - visiting work, having a meal out, going to a party, etc as it comes.

So we thank God and try and apply an increased level of trust and belief in his perfect provision to every day life. Thank you for your love, support and prayers. We pray that you too will be strengthened by seeing all that God has done in Stephanie this summer.

Every blessing in Jesus!

Phil and  Mary