Below is the report I just received from our missionary in Argentina, Mark Kinney:
Not sure if you saw in the int’l news from Chaco, Argentina the amazing survival story on April 3 of a newborn premature baby – 6 mos, 2 weeks old that was found alive after 12 hours in the morgue? I received a detailed report from one of our Bible school graduates who lives in Chaco and was involved in the case. His version of the story was not carried by the major networks.
It turns out that Facundo Macucha (IBM student) is discipling a recent convert in his church. The church was conducting an evangelism program that involves contacting people door-to-door and taking prayer requests. Facundo’s disciple Agusto contacted Analia Bouter at her home. She was a backslidden Christian who was also the mother of four children and pregnant with a yet unborn girl. She asked for prayer for a safe delivery because she had been experiencing problems with the pregnancy. Agusto promised to pray and have the church pray for her and her baby. Shortly after this interview she began to have severe pain and went to the hospital for an assessment. The doctors recommended an abortion because of the risk to her own life if she continued the pregnancy. She informed Agusto of the situation via a text message sent to the church contact info from the evangelism brochure. Agusto counseled her to not have an abortion. He assured her that he had faith that the baby would live and she would be fine. Analia then informed the doctors that she was against the abortion. They decided to take the premature baby by C-section, but after further consultations they opted to induce labor instead. The induced labor episode produced complications and the doctors informed the father, Fabian, that the baby had been born with severe medical complications and was near death. The mother was still sedated and unaware of these developments.
An hour later the doctors informed the father that the baby girl had died. The father sent a text message to Agusto informing him about the death because he had become a friend of the family and had prayed for the mother and baby. Agusto assured Fabian that the baby would live in spite of the obvious. He quoted the words of Jesus in Jn 11:25, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies…” Agusto had received a vision of the baby girl alive and clung to this version of reality in prayer all through the day. Meanwhile, the hospital staff issued a death certificate and sent the ‘dead’ baby 5 blocks to the morgue where she was enclosed in a small wooden coffin and then placed in a refrigerated vault. 12 hours later, at 10:30 p.m. the parents, accompanied by Analia’s brother and sister-in-law went to the morgue to take a picture of the baby with a cell phone camera.
The attendant on duty would only allow the parents into the morgue so the other couple waited in an outer room. Fabian requested a crow bar to pry open the lid of the coffin that had been nailed shut. When Analia pulled back the cloth to see the baby more clearly its hand jerked when she touched it. She assumed her mind was playing tricks on her. But, when Fabian removed the cotton from the baby’s mouth and nose to take the picture the mother touched the baby’s cheek and suddenly the baby cried and began breathing. This baby had been refrigerated for nearly 12 hours. There was frost on her skin yet against all odds of survival she was alive! The commotion that followed alerted the other couple outside the morgue that something incredible had happened. When Analia’s brother stepped into the morgue he saw his sister and brother-in-law kneeling on the floor praising God with unspeakable joy and surprise and the attendant holding the live baby girl in her arms. He quickly grabbed the baby and ran the 5 blocks back to the hospital in a frantic sprint to get help. He held the child against his chest for warmth. He reported that the baby, who weighed only slightly over 2 lbs, felt like a block of ice against his chest – as if it were a bottle of frozen water from the freezer. To the shock and amazement of the doctors the baby’s vital signs were normal and is now in intensive care and making progress each day. She was named Luz Milagros for obvious reasons. The churches in the capital city of Resistencia are experiencing revival from this incident. None of the doctors can explain how or why the baby is alive after being pronounced dead, or how it survived so many hours of refrigeration. If the mother had not insisted on going to the morgue to get a picture the baby would have been buried alive. Agusto is a young Christian whose faith may well be interpreted as presumptuous in some ways, but to date there is no other satisfactory explanation to account for this amazing miracle of life except that God honored his fledgling faith. Praise the Lord!
Mark Kinney – Missionary to Argentina
mark.kinney@hqmail.agmd.org
Acct. # 239794