Dottie McElreath was on her way to her daughter, Donna's house to watch her two girls so Donna could go to the hospital with Christie. Christie was in labor with her first child and Dottie had an overwhelming urge to pray for Christie and the baby. "I wonder why," she thought, "the baby is full term and Christie has had a normal pregnancy. Oh well, God wants me to pray, so I will pray."

Donna was terrified! Her best friend and sister-in-law, Christie McElreath, was having her first baby by the same doctor that she was suppose to be going to for her third baby and it was not going well. Christie didn't know what to expect, she heard all the terrible stories about how much child birth hurt, but she knew once the baby was born, she would forget all about it. Donna was intimidated by the doctor into being quiet. She was told if she asked any questions, they would remove her from the room. She knew Christie needed her so she kept quiet. The doctor was arguing with the nurses. "You know she is not dilated enough and I have to get this baby born," he said.

"She is dilated 9 cm and will do just fine if you leave her alone," said Karen. Karen looked at Judy with a knowing look that said, "Remember last week when the baby nearly died because this so called doctor wanted to go out to dinner and couldn't wait for a normal birth?"

Judy remembered all right, the baby was in intensive care at another hospital or dead for all she knew. She had hoped that this doctor would be tied up with the other three C-sections he was doing earlier and they would have to get his assistant. No such luck, and this poor girl was too timid and scared to say anything to him.

The doctor gave Christie a shot of Novocain and did an Episiotomy. "Quit screaming, you are such a baby," he said. He grabbed the suction cup, rammed it inside of Christie and tried to attach it to the babies head. "Push," he said as he pulled with all his strength.

"She's not even having a contraction," said Karen.

Donna had a tight hold on Christie's hand thinking, "I had 4 Novocain shots before my Episiotomy, and with the way she is loosing blood, the one shot could not be doing her any good. This place looks like a slaughter house," she thought as she looked around at all the blood on the bed and floor.

After the fourth try at pulling the baby out with the suction cup, the doctor stood up and said, "Prepare her for a C-Section. I'm not getting anywhere here."

The monitor showed the babies heart was in distress. Karen and Judy were both worried now, they could see the babies dark, long hair as the doctor sewed up the cervix.

The doctor said, "Get up Christie and move over to that stretcher and quit acting like such a child." Looking at Karen, he said, "This will be my 4th C-Section today. I sure am having a good day."

It took two minutes of work before Victoria's heart started after she was born on April 22. The baby was very blue and had no normal reflexes.

This is the first time Donna had a chance to call her mother, Dottie and tell her what was going on. Dottie called me since I was a friend and her prayer partner. "Sandy, we need all the prayers we can get. Mother and baby are both in trouble." I called everyone I could think of including Evangelist Linda Kindle to pray with us. It was in God's hands now.

All night long a nurse stayed at Victoria's bed side and shook her to keep her breathing. They had to start her on a respirator in the morning. After 24 hours on the respirator, they took her off and she had seizures. They transferred her to Piedmont Hospital on their "Angel Flight" (a flight for babies that were in great danger of dying on the way) for their neonatal care unit. The pediatrician in charge of Victoria ordered several tests. From the tests he discovered massive bleeding in her brain, a swollen brain, very poor responses on the neurological tests and problems with her heart stopping while sleeping. He put her on a respirator that had to supply an average of 10 breaths per minute (in other words, she stopped breathing an average of 10 times a minute) and on medication to control her seizures. The prognosis was not good. He asked for all the details surrounding her birth and suspected birth trauma as the cause of all her problems. He also wanted to know when Christie was out of the hospital so he could go after the doctor that delivered the baby without causing Christie any problems.

All of Christie's family and friends were requested to pray. This baby needed a miracle! Dottie was driving across Red Top Mountain, thinking about the baby and praying when she heard Linda Kindle singing over her radio that had been broadcasting a ball game. Linda was singing, "There is a Miracle in the Making."

When little Victoria was 5 days old it looked as if she would live, and at best, be a slow learner. At worst, who knows? The bleeding in her head had stopped, but was not going away. Her pediatrician said she still would need the respirator for another week (she was supplemented 5 breaths per minute) and she would probably be on medication for seizures until she was 5 years old or older. Time was the only way to tell for sure. We were told to expect her to be in the hospital at least another month. I took pictures of her for the first time.

Victoria was in the prayers of 6 different churches in the Atlanta area that weekend and on many prayer lists across the country. Special intercessory prayers were said by the pastor of her church and a good friend. The next day when her Grandmother, Dottie McElreath and I went to visit her, we couldn't believe she was the same child. Victoria had pulled out her own breathing tube and they didn't have to replace it as yet. Her color was much better, and I was able to get some better pictures of her. She already looked like "God's miracle baby!"

A new MRI showed the blood going away in her brain and the swelling almost gone. She continued to improve so rapidly that she was discharged 5 days later at the age of 2 1/2 weeks. She was suppose to see her neurologist once a month, her pediatrician once a week and be on a heart monitor, especially while sleeping.

The next week home, Victoria's monitor registered a slow heart rate, or stopped heart about once a day. She still had a jerkiness to her eyes, rolled her eyes back in her head and had tension in her arms and legs that I have seen in my own son that was brain damaged at birth. It looked to me as if she would grow up severely retarded and with Cerebral Palsy so bad that she would never be able to walk or talk.

I have been a patient of chiropractor, Dr. Jim Hether, for a long time and because of his excellent care and the grace of God, no longer need a wheel chair to get around with my MS. I asked him if he could do anything with a child injured at birth. He said he could so I brought Victoria and her mother in when she was just 4 weeks old.

Dr. Hether examined her and found a six plus degree temperature difference from one side of her neck to the other. He said, "I have never seen a baby this far out of alignment before." He adjusted her in three places and measured again. This time there was less than .2 of a degree difference. Victoria slept the most relaxed sleep she had since birth that afternoon and stayed awake all night to play. Her tired mother brought her to Dottie the next day so she could sleep. Dottie tried to keep her awake so she would sleep that night. Good excuse for Grandma to spoil her! The next day I saw her and she was so alert, no more jerky eyes, no more abnormal muscle tension in her arms and legs, and no more eyes rolling back in her head. She has a nick name of "Turtle" cause all she does is pick her head up and look around at everything. Dr. Hether continued to check her twice a week, but she only needed one more adjustment. After that adjustment she came out of the office turning her head from side to side as if to test her neck to see how it works. Her neurologist says she is doing so well, has all the normal responses to his tests, that he doesn't need to see her again until she is 6 months old. Her heart monitor has never sounded again since the first adjustment for a slow or stopped heart. It did go off once or twice for a fast heart rate while she was being held by Dottie. That could have been because the monitor picked up Dottie's heart too. Her seizure medicine has been discontinued because it is no longer needed.

Victoria is now three years old and is a very healthy, normal little girl. There are no signs of brain damage and she no longer needs to go to a neurologist for check ups. I see a miracle every time I look into those big, beautiful brown eyes of hers.

God uses all kinds of angels to do His work. Sometimes the angels are supernatural and sometimes they are the medical doctor, chiropractor or health care professional He puts in our path. All good chiropractors and doctors are the instruments God uses to administer His healing touch. Thank you Jesus for helping this special child.