A pastor from the state of Georgia is celebrating after his wife survived a brutal battle with coronavirus.
Claudette Himes began feeling unwell in mid-March after developing a high fever. With medication unable to bring her temperature down. Then, her breathing began to deteriorate. Himes was admitted to hospital, where her condition worsened. "I just thought that I had the flu," Himes told Fox 5.
Soon, Claudette needed help to breathe and was placed on a ventilator. She remembers saying a hurried goodbye to her husband Leonard before being sedated. "I prayed with her, and I said I loved her, and I said we're going to trust in the Lord and saviour to heal you," Leonard recalled.
For almost two weeks, Claudette remained on ventilation, fighting for her life. Due to the policy of no contact, Leonard wouldn't see her in-person for some 18 days.
"In a normal circumstance, you can be by the side of your loved one and care for them and pray with them, and be there to at least know what's going on," he said. "But, through this pandemic, the severity of it, we had to be totally separate."
With Claudette failing to improve, Himes decided requested that doctors set up a baby monitor in her room so that he could pray over her as she lay unconscious and gravely ill.
"I was able to read to her, and pray for her, and just let her know it was going to be okay," Himes said. "The nurse and the chaplain that were in the room attending to her turned the camera back at them and they were just sobbing, with tears running down their face."
The next morning, to his great astonishment, Claudette had been extubated and was sitting up in bed, breathing completely on her own.
A few days later, she celebrated her 63rd birthday, surrounded by medical staff. "Can you imagine having a birthday and someone telling you that you might not have made it," she said. "And to breathe God's air? Oh, my God, I'm just blessed."
With no comprehensive medical explanation for her recovery, Leonard and Claudette are choosing to believe that God had a hand in her healing.
"What I do know is God is real, and he answers prayer," Leonard declared. "And, he answered this one."
