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“Really Bad Prognosis”: 30 Unexplainable Medical Events That May Make You Believe In Miracles
Medical science can typically provide a clear explanation of the intricacies of the human body. However, there are times when something out of the ordinary happens that one can only chalk up to a “miraculous” occurrence.
In various Reddit threads from years ago, medical professionals shared their most unexplainable moments with patients. Most of these happened during and after a crucial procedure, leaving them baffled, to say the least.
If any doctors, nurses, EMTs, and other professionals in the field have similar experiences, we would love to hear about them through the comment boxes below.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Doctor here. I’ve seen a good handful of miraculous turnarounds, but the one that stuck with me is a little different.
I was a medical student, and an elderly gentleman had come in with a worsening of his heart disease. Neither the patient or the cardiac surgeons were thrilled with the idea of surgery. So we were treating him medically the best we could, but he wasn’t making much progress. While talking with him one afternoon, I discovered that his wife was also very sick, and also hospitalized. Because hers was an autoimmune problem, and his was a cardiac problem, they were kept apart in two different hospital units. So, we asked around and got approval to transfer his wife up to the cardiac unit into a shared room with her sweetheart. They were both so ill that they couldn’t get out of bed, so we pushed them together. After they all got set up, everybody left to do their paperwork, but I stuck around and talked to them for a bit. They shared with me that they had been married for nearly 70 years, and bragged about each other, and how grateful they were to have shared their lives with each other. They held hands across their hospital beds and expressed a profound contentment with their time on earth.
The following day, I went to check on them on early morning pre-rounds, but the room was empty. The overnight nurse explained that they had fallen asleep holding hands, and both had passed away in the night.
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#2
Nurse here. When I was a new grad there was this young woman who had a severe brain bleed to the point that we removed two skull flaps to relieve pressure. She had a really bad prognosis. Her husband always was at her side and kissed her every day even though she was unresponsive. One day she kissed him back. I happened to be in the room hanging a med when it happened. It was her first purposeful movement after her stroke. She ended up making a pretty great recovery last I heard. Walking and talking. Came back to visit us with her husband. Will never forget it.
#3
Nurse here. But, as a student nurse I did a placement on a Nero floor. Had a guy who had had a sever stroke. Aphasia (jumbled words) and 3 x assist with a hoist. Late one evening dude walked past the nurses station like nothing had happened, my preceptor carefully followed him and asked what he was doing. He said “oh just going for a walk” like it was no problem. We followed him around the ward for a bit and then he went back to bed.
The next day he was back to being a full assist. The guys wife said he would go for a walk every evening before the stroke. The doctors think it must of been muscle memory or some other part of the brain driving him (I’m not sure maybe a Neuro person could explain, I’m a cardiac nurse now! Haha).
Kristiina Männiste 3 hours ago
My grandma suffered a stroke and lost the ability to talk or write. We were told the stroke took out most of her intellect too, but I do not believe that - because she was with us when the social worker told us, and she started crying.... When we took her home from the hospital she said "Oma kodu" (My own home) completely out of the blue. Unfortunately it was just this one time and she passed a few moths after. I think that the relief to be home at last was so big that it somehow won even over the stroke and found expression in her last full sentence.
#4
Medical assistant here. I saw a nail go through a guy’s thumb and to the other side. Glove included. As we were workman’s comp/urgent care and he wasn’t severely bleeding, we got an X-ray before we sent him to the ER. The nail was a hairline away from the bone.
His story, paraphrased and in English (he spoke Spanish): “I was using a nail gun at work. I turned off the safety to move quickly and me being an idiot forgot to move my hand.”
The X-ray was awesome.
#5
I am an ENT surgeon. During my post-graduation we were just winding up at 2'oclock a busy OPD ,the senior resident of obs and gyn hospital came rushing on a scooter to get us.
As theOPD was locked the phone was no reply and it was the year 1989. Turned out that a full term woman was taken for caesarean under spinal anaesthesia and was later given general anesthesia in which a breathing tube was required to be inserted through the mouth/nose into the airway.
But she hid the fact while giving history that due to a childhood injury , her mouth opening was just one finger. So it was impossible to go through mouth and a blind insertion through nose wasn't working. (No flexible endoscope at that time) .
So they called us to do a tracheostomy (making a hole in airway at the front of neck) through which the tube could be inserted . Meanwhile the only oxygen that the pt could get was through mask.
Tracheostomy is a 1mt procedure in emergency but it was easier said than done. The pt was repeatedly arresting and they would do CPR and the moment we began our work , there would be cardiac arrest again. This happened 5-6, times.
Ultimately we succeeded in inserting the tube . It seemed a futile exercise to me. Pt. Was shifted then to the ICU. The next morning i had a call of some other pt from ICU and went there. A woman came and said , thank you so much, my daughter is fine now! I didn't understand then I went to the bed no. she told me and the pt. was there , conscious, obeying commands, with no hypoxic damage to brain despite a series of terrifying cardiac arrests. Her daughter from caesarean was also fine and healthy (of course she was delivered before the cardiac arrests.).
#6
I'm an RN, not a doctor. I worked in dialysis for almost five years. People who have acute renal failure (somehow injured the kidney, kidneys got messed up due to an illness, stuff like that) will sometimes get better and be just fine. Chronic renal failure patients (kidneys just get worn out, usually from diabetes and/or high blood pressure) don't get better. Between my main clinic and floating to other clinics over the years I've cared for hundreds and hundreds of patients. Chronic renal patients don't get better.
I got into dialysis because my kidneys were failing and I wanted to know what I was in for. I'd had diabetes for 24 years and high blood pressure for a couple. I was very much a chronic patient. My doctor said I had five, maybe ten years before I'd be on dialysis and looking for a transplant. That was twelve years ago and somehow my kidneys are better today than when I first got diagnosed. The only thing I, or any of the doctors I worked with, can guess is that being in the dialysis center scared my body into somehow fixing them so we don't end up there.
#7
Had a patient suffer a massive pulmonary embolism in the hospital, requiring a STAT thrombectomy. This procedure is basically putting a catheter through the heart to the pulmonary arteries and trying like heck to break up the huge blood clot preventing her from getting circulation to and subsequently oxygen from her lungs.
Well she coded once before we even started the procedure. My attending comes in the room to start the procedure and sees me doing chest compressions. He's like what did I just miss? So an urgent case basically became... either we get this clot out soon or she will be gone. Not going to bore you with too many details about the procedure, but I will say she coded at least 8 times during a 2 hour procedure (honestly lost count after 5). She was literally purple from head to toe from oxygen deprivation.
Things were going nowhere. I scrubbed out and had to talk to the husband and tell him everything that happened, we were trying our best, but she was not probably not going to make it. Even if she did, the brain just can't tolerate 2 hours of oxygen deprivation and her heart stopping 8 times. He was crushed, but he made the agonizing decision to let her go if her heart stopped again. At that point I did something I've never done before or since, I brought him into our operating suite to say goodbye. It was the most heartbreaking thing I've ever seen in my career.
I escorted him back to the waiting room and we continue our procedure. Miraculously we manage to open up one segment of the pulmonary artery and she turns pink, her O2 sats go up to 90%+, and she doesn't code again. We get her back up to the ICU to be stabilized. Next day I go see her and her husband and she is completely normal without any residual cognitive deficits. She even remembers me explaining the procedure to her prior to everything happening. They were extremely thankful that we didn't give up on her. To this day I don't have a good explanation for what happened, but it's the reason I do what I do.
**TL;DR Massive pulmonary embolism, heart stops 8x, husband says final goodbyes. Survives with ZERO deficits, only explained by a miracle.**.
#8
I work on the labor deck of the hospital, this mom comes in to have a standard delivery. Everything's going fine when the baby comes out the umbilical cord is wrapped around its neck twice (nucal x2) body chord x1 and true knot x2 ( that's when there is an actual knot in the umbilical chord). By all accounts this delivery should have been a demise, the doctors can't explain it. But she delivered a perfectly healthy baby, just hoping this kid doesn't turn out to be the anti-Christ.
#9
My Uncle had stomach cancer, he was going through radiation and chemotherapy. One day he went for a checkup and the tumour was gone. The Doctors cannot explain it but they're having all kinds of fun trying to figure it out, the working assumption is that he just responded really well to the treatments. I'm just happy he's cancer free.
#10
I had a spinal epidural, woke up and was in serious pain. The nurses kept saying it's ok to be in pain and knew they were wrong . They discharged me after giving me a percocet by I knew I was in trouble. I went home grabbed my wife and headed to the ER. Everyone who goes I to the ER is in pain so you know how long I sat. I got up to go to the bathroom and my legs failed. I was in serious trouble. A brilliant surgeon named murray came in after 2 shots of delauded an told me I was trouble. I was taken to surgery and 10 hours later they had pulled a 10 inch blood clot out of my spine . I had a 16 inch incision 6 level laminectomy , muscle tissue moved to the opposite side of mine spine , pain was the least of my problems. My legs failed due to the clot being above C3 , he told me he had to pull it down from C3. Survival for a spinal hematoma is 5 to 50 percent. I was very lucky. Doctor M was amazing. He saved my life, I was on the way out
I will be forever grateful.
#11
I saw a little girl, 4 years old, that fell on a knitting needle. It entered her chest under her left armpit and exited thru her right armpit. It missed her ascending and descending aorta, passing just under the arch.
#12
Sorry to be that person, but not a doctor/nurse...I've posted this on reddit before but a few years ago I had a massive infection in my lungs, was in a coma for 5 weeks, had a stroke while in the coma. It was so bad that my grandpa and uncle went to a funeral home to make arrangements for my body. Here I am, two years later, totally fine, in school. Although I don't really believe in God, the only explanation was that it's a miracle that I am not only still alive, but healthy and have no permanent damage.
#13
I am a nurse and was once looking after and I was just starting the night shift and remember looking at her and thinking that she doesn't have much longer to live, she was chainstoking (taking her last breaths). At about six o'clock that morning i walked into the room and found her sitting up in bed smiling. She asked what was for breakfast and seemed fine. I believe she lived for a few more months before cancer took her life.
The following night i was told that the reason the patient was so poorly was because some idiot had given her oxygen in her nebuliser causing her to retain oxgen in her blood, making her blood acidic. The real miracle of this story is that the plonker who did this to her was never held responsible.
Savannah greenleaf 2 hours ago
I think they mean Cheyne-Stokes breathing, not chainstoke. That confused me for a second.
#14
When my mom was 14 she was diagnosed with terminal thyroid cancer. The doctors decided to try some crazy stuff (for the 60's) and just straight removed the entire offending gland. All of the thyroid, just tossed it. Between the radiation and the cutting very important parts out of her neck they gave her long odds of making it to 18. She was also told she would definitely be sterile. Not just because of the radiation but because not having a thyroid gland meant her body couldn't control its hormone levels well enough to keep a baby alive.
My mom is 55 now and I exist.
To be fair she miscarried about six times before having me, so I guess I must have been some sort of freakishly persistent fetus. Perhaps having inherited that trait from my freakishly persistent mom? Who knows, man.
#15
I am a clinician scientist, so I end up working on a lot of clinical trials, particularly about brain tumors. I'll try to keep this short and in lay terms, because I'm sure you don't want me talking about IL-2 and PD1 receptors and chimeric proteins, I'll probably lose you all. So I'll just tell this story simply as a vignette:
Enter Patient X. X is a sixteen-year-old male presenting with glioblastoma multiforme, or a grade 4 astrocytoma, in his left frontal lobe. It was determined that he had an overexpression of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), something that is common with this type of cancer. X was asymptomatic before this point, and by the time the tumor was visualized, it had grown into the ventricular wall, and there was a great amount of protein in the CSF. He was given a three year survival rate of 8%.
We entered him into our clinical trial, a trial we were conducting on adoptive immunotherapy (since most chemotherapeutics can't pass through the blood-brain barrier, it is very difficult to treat brain cancers effectively through medication). We were given copies of his MRIs which showed a massive tumor, and MR spectroscopy showed a significantly increased choline peak, indicative of a quickly growing tumor.
All this to say: This was the real deal. I had seen many similar cases, mostly in older patients, but this sixteen-year-old had it to nearly the same degree. We were preparing for the trial: He was going to have surgery to remove roughly 99% of the tumor, and then, along with several other patients undergoing the same treatment, we would apply our adoptive immunotherapy protocol and see how this affected tumor resurgence.
He lived on the opposite side of the country, so him and his family flew out to where we were, and we quickly made our own scans and took our own measurements. But there was a big problem: There was no tumor. The most recent scans, showing a massive tumor that extended nearly half of the way from the peak to the base of the forebrain (in the sagittal view) had disappeared. MS spectroscopy showed no altered choline peak. Protein concentrations in the CSF were normal.
We didn't know what to think. We checked with his hospital to ensure these were in fact his medical records--they were. His symptoms had ceased altogether, even his convulsions (he had to stop taking anticonvulsants because of our trial). One of my staff scientists thought he might have had a twin, that's how neurotic our explanations became. It simply didn't make any sense. A tumor that big, that extensive, that dangerous, does not simply disappear in the two weeks between brain scans.
This was three years ago. X is now at a wonderful university studying neuroscience. He wants to be a clinician scientist like myself. He goes in for regular checkups, and there has yet to be any indication of any tumor in his brain. And I for the life of me cannot understand why. The only thing I can think, and please don't make a big deal out of this, is that God really has big plans for X, and he wouldn't let a grade four astrocytoma get in the way of that.
Either that or he went to Mexico before he came to us and had the surgery there.
Ejteh 3 hours ago
It must have been mixed up results in those records: someone working in the other hospital mixed up x's results with someone else's who heard he was healthy but had in fact a massive tumor. So yeah, his records, but someone else his results.
Ace 12 minutes ago
Very unlikely in a Clinical Trial environment, where every last detail is recorded and processes and systems are validated and audited.
Load More Replies... #16
When my dad was a kid he was hit by a van while riding his bike. To make a long story short it really messed him up. The doctors said that he won't make it and at the slight chance he does then he would be handicapped his whole life. Well, he made a full recovery with nothing more than scars to prove is happened.
#17
Nurse.
Had a woman who was practically unresponsive for days, no sign of improvement, deemed to be end of life.
Arranged discharge to a hospice for end of life care, ambulance arrived and transferred her.
Less than an hour after arriving at the hospice she woke up and asked one of the nurses there for a can of fosters.
Eventually went home and lived for a few years after.
Another one, not really a miracle but it scared the hell out of me: I had been off sick with the good old D+V, first shift back we had a new patient arrive a few hours into shift.
Started admitting him, paperwork and so on. Part way through he told me to stand up, looked at me for a while and said "that stomach pain you have been having - I thought it might be your appendix but you had that taken out as a kid in Scotland, never mind."
I did have it removed when I was on holiday in Ayre - yay butlins!
Stayed as far away from him as I could after that.
#18
I was actually a lifeguard when I was sixteen but had a similar experience.
From day one of our training we have cpr and all of those things drilled into our head, but no one expects to use it. The last time an ambulance had been called to our pool was about 3 years prior and that had just been because someone hit their head. This did happen that year. During a really hot and busy day a woman had a seizure in the pool and went under. The lifeguard on duty was in fast and got her onto the tube. Luckily we had practiced these procedures so often that we were well-oiled. We had her on the backboard and out of the water in a flash. They couldn't find a pulse on her so they started CPR and got the AED and BVM ready. They had the BVM (basically a big bag connected to oxygen that you squeeze to put into the person's lungs) hooked up, but in the confusion, a woman who was a regular to the pool that summer got out, claiming to be a nurse and grabbed the BVM. No one noticed for a few seconds, they had been doing CPR for a couple of minutes now. The lady puts one breath into the woman we were helping before our manager pulled the equipment away. After one breath the woman came up coughing and hacking out water. We were all so focused on her that no one bothered to keep track of the other lady, and by the time we started looking we couldn't find her. No one saw her at the pool again, and the only thing anyone remembers about her is that she was wearing a white swim dress.
Probably not a miracle, just a coincidence. But it was still incredible at the time for a bunch of 16-year-old's.
#19
Im not a nurse, but i was kind of on the other side of this if that's acceptable. i was hit by a car when i was 16, and when the emt's and police arrived, they looked around for a corpse. they were all flabbergasted when they were pointed in my direction.
the car was totaled, they all just assumed from the damage that whoever was hit would not have survived or would have at the very least been critically injured. i was bruised and extremely uncomfortable, but i didn't even break a bone.
#20
I was volunteering at a sub-acute centre. There was a little older lady I liked to visit with. She was also rather senile, so I just let her talk, because she really never stopped. I saw her earlier that morning, and she was chatting away to herself, like always. I went in about an hour later and I saw her in her chair and it appeared that she was sleeping. I went to go wake her and see if she wanted to nap in bed or do some activities, whatever. I touched her shoulder and her neck was cold. I quickly realised that she was gone. I freaked out, and called the nurse in. The nurse reacted and picked her up and sort of dropped her on the bed before going to check her file...to see if she had a DNR before performing CPR. As soon as she hit the bed, she sat straight up, gulped a blast of air and began chatting away to herself. She was perfectly fine. I understand that the jolt of the bed could very well have restarted her heart, so this is not unusual, but as some not in the medical profession, it scared the bejesus out of me.
#21
My friend Chris got in a bad car accident at age 17 and spent 9 days in a coma. Doctors didn't think he would live, then he woke up. Doctors didn't think he would ever walk, and now he's been dancing for 10 years and teaching dance for 5 years. And he runs marathons. Most of his face had to be reconstructed and skin-grafted from other parts of his body, and you can hardly even tell today. And he plays the trumpet in a band. His rate of healing was miraculous.
#22
Not a doctor, but I was playing with an oxidized iron coat hanger when I was like one, and I stuck it under my left eye. It was pulled out and I was crying blood for a while. Everybody thought I would be blind, but the wound healed by itself and they told my parents that it was against the odds.
#23
My Uncle had liver cancer and was going through chemo, the works. Within a couple of months it was completely gone with no additional surgeries. The Doctors declared it a miracle, I personally just think they're not giving themselves enough credit for doing a good job.
My own cancer Doctor says it's a "miracle" I still have my right eye because he was planning to amputate it after the tumour went into necrosis but he kept seeing small improvements every week so kept postponing it. Again, I don't think it was so much divine intervention as excellent medical care.
#24
I'm not a doctor, but a lady I know had cancer, not sure which kind, and was given months to live. She went through chemo and everything and eventually it went away. A year or so later, she gets cancer again, doctor's say there isn't really much they can do and give her about a month to live. She goes to the doctor about a week or so later and they tell her that there's nothing there. Not that the cancer was in remission, but that it just wasn't there. Complete clean bill of health.
#25
Whilst not a doctor, after my wife gave birth to my first child, there was complications which let to gallstones causing her pancreas to rupture causing multiple pseudo cysts in her internals which contained about 5 litres of fluid, was in ICU for about a month and hospital on a feeding tube for another 2 or 3 months. Normal people would of been in hospital for a lot longer and lose their pancreas function, One of my wife's drains that was installed (like a tap coming out of her skin) even though it was not able to move,it puncture her stomach which then joined up to her pancreas, making fluid drain naturally and her pancreas to restore its functionality. One of the head doctors, turned around and said I don't know if you believe in God or anything but that was a miracle which none of us can explain" was discharged 1 day later and didn't have to have any more operations (she had about 12). Not as good as coming back to life but wasn't able to be explained by doctors and got my wife back home to our baby.
#26
Im not a doctor, but i was a "miracle" patient. When i was 5 weeks old i had a brain hemorrhage. Doctors have no idea how i survived it. And they also have no idea what caused it. They say i should not be alive, and they dont even know why.
#27
I have a story for this, but I'm on the other side of it
When I was 1 or 2, I had a severe allergic reaction to penicillin. Like reaally bad, I broke out in hives all over and my skin turned black, purple, and blue. I couldn't do anything but lay down because my muscles were so weak. Most of my fathers side of the family is also allergic to penicillin so when he noticed the symptoms I was immediately brought to the hospital.
The doctors took pictures of me and put it in a medical journal (not sure which one, but I think it may be one in the Seattle, Washington area, as that's where I lived at the time).
I don't remember any of it obviously, this is just what I've been told countless times by my Dad.
#28
Not a doctor but a few years ago my grandmother was diagnosed with lung cancer and only given a few months to live. She did chemo and beat it but a few years later was diagnosed again. By this time she had pretty severe dementia and the family made the choice to not tell her since the doctors said there was no hope even with chemo this time. A few months later she's sent to the hospital and they run tests to see how her cancer is progressing and find... nothing. Her cancer had vanished. None of the doctors could figure it out.
#29
I'm no doctor but my idiot family physician was befuddled by the fact that I've had UTIs simply go away on their own. Apparently he was convinced that the infection will only worsen unless treated with antibiotics.
#30
Super minor, but when I was a kid my eyesight all of a sudden got horrible in one eye, and I was prescribed glasses. I got annual checkups to follow my eyesight, but when I was in college I went in and all of a sudden my eyes were perfect. No reasonable explanation, they just...got better.
What do you think ?
2x4b523p 1 hour ago
Years ago I’ve read news about woman misdiagnosed with cancer who got treated for years only to learn she never had cancer in the first place. The article mentioned there were actually more cases in that hospital tied to the same physician. I will believe in misdiagnosis and mixed up scans before I believe in miracles.
2x4b523p 1 hour ago
Years ago I’ve read news about woman misdiagnosed with cancer who got treated for years only to learn she never had cancer in the first place. The article mentioned there were actually more cases in that hospital tied to the same physician. I will believe in misdiagnosis and mixed up scans before I believe in miracles.
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