Written by Edgar Luna

Its been more than years ago when this happened and it’s an experience that impacted me and reinforced my faith.

It was the fall of 2014 when we had been living in Keller Texas for about seven years and we were very happy in our home. A great house with plenty of space for our three kids, my wife and I and any member of our family that would like to visit and spend some time with us.

My wife and I that had been raised about sixhundred miles away from Keller and moving here for work, we would always welcome family to come and visit and stay for longer periods of time.

This story focuses on an event that impacted me involving my now late father-in-law who, that fall, was spending time with us.

 Everything was going well, and we were just living our normal family life with our kids and enjoying the visit of my in laws.

At that stage of my life my work required me to travel a few days every month to visit suppliers, so I had to go on a three day business trip just like I had done so many times before.

The night before I was scheduled to go back home I called my wife as I did every time I traveled and she mentioned that my father in law was feeling weak like he had a cold .

She asked me if I could take a few hours off work when I got back home and take him to the doctor, I said yes and went to bed not thinking too much about it.

Next evening I was back home and went to talk to my father in law which at that point in time was in his early sixty’s. I asked him how he was feeling. He said that he felt like he had a cold and felt weak and only wanted to sleep, which was very odd for him which was normally a person that could not be still. I said ok and let him rest and assured him that next morning we would go have him checked by the doctor.

Next day we woke up, got ready and I called my work, and I asked for a few hours then we left to go to the doctor.

As we drove he seemed normal as he talked about regular stuff like we had always done in the past, laughing and just seemed that this cold was a minor thing.

Got to the office, checked in and proceeded to wait for some time. After about thirty minutes, his name was called, and we got moved into the consulting room.

 The doctor arrived fairly quickly and started to ask a few basic questions as I translated from Spanish to English and vice versa y started to learn that my father-in-law had an incident a few days before where he felt an excruciating chest pain, and that he just put it off and eventually it went away.

The doctor asked one of the nurses to perform an EKG immediately which they did.

Once results were obtained the doctor came in and told us that an ambulance had been requested and that his heart was not well. I asked if I could drive him to the hospital and the doctor said no, that we had to wait for the ambulance, so we waited.

In less than ten minutes the ambulance arrived the paramedics proceeded to go over the protocol and placed my father-in-law onto the gurney. He had a face of confusion and fear, and I just told him I would meet him there. I saw the paramedics load him into the ambulance and then then drive off. I followed the ambulance and about twenty minutes later we were at the emergency entrance of the hospital.

The hospital they took him was the best in the city and the uncertainty of what was to come was stressful to me and not to say that I had not called my wife yet to tell her about her dad.

He got admitted and was taken into care by himself, I could no longer be with him, but he reassured me he would be OK, and was taken into the hospital as I tried to get more information from the hospital personnel.

I called my wife and told her what had happened and she and my mother-in-law that also was visiting got in the car to drive to the hospital.

They both arrived about forty-five minutes later as we waited for any news from the medical staff that was caring for my father-in-law. As we waited, we called my wife’s two sisters that still lived in our hometown and gave them the news.

After a few hours of wait we got news that they had some results and wanted someone with him to assure that he understood what the situation was.

I turned to my wife and mother-in-law to see if they wanted to go in and they said no, they asked me to go in with him, because they were very nervous and afraid of what the news could be.

As I walked into the room I saw my father in law waiting with a worried face then the doctor came in and started to explain.

He showed us an ultrasound recording of the heart and pointed out a few things.

He said:

You see that very weak stream of blood moving in this area?

Both my father-in-law and I said acknowledged.

Well that is a big issue, it should be a strong stream.

Then he said,

This also shows that half his heart is basically dead and that they could have done something more if my father-in-law had come in when the heart attack first happened a few days ago.

Then the doctor said those words that are tough to hear.

” He might not make it through the night”

As he said that I felt like I was living in a dream and could not process the information fast enough.

At that same time my father-in-law that does not speak English very well looked at me and asked me:

” Dijo que me voy a morir?” – “Is he saying that I am going to die?“

And as I was trying to understand and process the information I automatically just said:

“Si” – ” Yes”

His eyes went wide, and you could tell he was in shock, I told him in Spanish to wait and immediately turned to the doctor and asked said ok, “

What’s next?”

The doctor said that he had to perform emergency open-heart surgery, that of course was something huge and scary. At that point so many things came to mind but tried to stay calm and keep listening and the doctor left and took my father-in-law back to his room to get him ready to operate first thing next morning.

Once we were done, I let my wife and mother-in-law know that we had finished talking and gave them the news. They walked in to talk to my father-in-law and even though it was shocking news, everyone kept composure and was relatively calm.

The decision was made to go ahead with the operation, which was scheduled first thing-in the morning that next day but not after other tests that needed to be done to assure he could be operated.

By then we had given the news to the sisters, and they were making arrangements to travel to see him.

We came out of the room and started to call everyone we knew and asked for prayers. Everyone that we talked to told us that they would pray for him and the family.

As the day progressed and we talked about the plan of what time to be at the hospital and arranging our schedule, the atmosphere was relatively calm.

Next day as we were getting ready for the day to come, we got a call from the hospital telling us that the operation was a no go, because the blood work came back and my father-in-law’s platelets were very low and they could not operate when the condition was like that.

Then the rest of the tests were not too good, as they told us the liver, kidneys and heart needed to get stronger, and surgery was not an option at this point. So, they proceed to begin a treatment in order to be able to operate in the next a few days. By the end of the second day both my sisters in law and family had made it and visited with him.

At no moment in time did I see fear or sorrow, just hope and laughter.

Didn’t mean that we were not worried but we had faith that everything would be OK regardless.

Prayers kept going and as social media support was evident we did as much to keep everyone in high spirits.

Second day came and went and then the option changed from an open heart to a stent which was a much less aggressive treatment and it was welcomed.

The treatment continued and the third day the doctor decided to not operate and only stick to the treatment which required observation and medicine throughout his stay.

The days turned into a week and he was getting stronger with each day.

Now what was so surprising to me is that that first interaction with the doctor and after we saw the sonogram there was hard scientific evidence that he was in very bad shape, and also all the other tests were only giving us bad results.

But the week turned to several weeks and every day he seemed better.

Going from a potential:

• Will not make it through the night to,
• Open heart surgery to, 
• Surgery to place a stent to
• Treatment with only medicine.

Now when you witness something like this, what would you be inclined to think?

I can tell you that from a man with faith, I believe that all prayers were answered, and I truly believe that I witnessed a miracle.

I can say that because I was there very close to everything and saw and heard experts giving us what the data was telling them, however the outcome was not as the one predicted.

Now there might be a very simple explanation and it might make sense, but no one has been able to explain it.

And I am ok with that, because I know that there is a higher power that allows things like this to happen, and I feel peace knowing that whatever reason we had this experience is something that will touch someone.

The power of prayer is great, we just need to believe in it and like with that incident, get together for a common cause and ask with faith.

In summary my father-in-law got to live for more than ten years after that, but at that moment in time it was not his time.

Written in memory of Arq. Enrique. Aragon may he rest in peace.

E. Luna