Baby declared dead ‘comes back to life’ after being placed on chapel altar
by John Jalsevac
Wed Jul 17, 2013 17:52 EST
Tags: brazil, yasmin gomes
July 17, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Family members and medical personnel at a hospital in Lindrina, Brazil, say they are stunned after a baby declared dead apparently came back to life after being placed on the altar in the hospital’s chapel.
The altar where the little girl lay for three hours, before being discovered to be alive.
According to local news sources, Yasmin Gomes was born premature earlier this month, and almost immediately stopped breathing. Doctors attempted for nearly an hour to revive the girl, who weighed only 2.6 pounds, but after their attempts failed they declared the baby dead and issued a death certificate.
Yasmin’s mother, Jenifer Gomes da Silva, 22, told Brazil’s Tanosite that when she was told her daughter had died, “My world crashed down right then. It was the most desperate moment when all my dreams were snatched away.”
However, Nurse Ana Claudia Oliveira asked that instead of being sent to the morgue, the body of the child be placed in a box and put on the altar in the chapel.
“She’s a little angel, a child. I just couldn’t face the thought of her being sent down to the morgue,” she told Globo G1.
The nurse testified that in every possible way, the baby appeared to be dead.
“I can assure you, the child was dead. Her pupils didn’t respond to light. All her signs pointed to the complete absence of life,” she said.
“I saw it with my own eyes. She was blue all over, completely dead,” she added.
Dr. Aurelio Filipak says that in 20 years of practicing medicine he has never witnessed anything similar.
Tanosite
Three hours later, the baby’s grandmother went to fetch the baby with a mortician. But what they saw left them weeping tears of joy, instead of sadness.
When they went to pick up the baby, she kicked.
“At first I couldn’t believe it; we couldn’t accept that it could happen,” said grandmother Elza Silva.
“Then we saw she was breathing. We hugged each other and started to shout, ‘She’s alive. She’s alive.’ It was a miracle.”
One of the doctors who fought to save the baby’s life is as stunned as the family.
“In 20 years of medicine, I have never witnessed anything like this,” said Dr. Aurelius Filipak. When asked if the event was a miracle, however, the physician said he would not speculate.
The family, on the other hand, is less circumspect.
“Miracles have no explanation. Everything happens as God wants. If it was God’s will that our daughter left, we would accept [it], but there must be some greater purpose in all this,” said the mother.
Tanosite reports, however, that the baby is still in serious condition in the hospital. The family is asking for continued prayers.