AMAZING STORY
Miracle Reverses Damage to Heart Muscle
By Michelle Wilson
The 700 Club
CBN.com - Jon remembers, “I didn’t realize the reason why I was vomiting is because I was dying.”
On February 2nd 2006, Jon Funderburg woke up with intense abdominal pain. He thought it was something he ate but when it didn’t get better, he went to the doctor. Jon recalls, “I remember when the doctor came in I was curled up on the table there in the fetal position. I mean I was hurting that bad. My stomach was cramping and the doctor started asking me questions.”
Suspecting appendicitis, the doctor called for his wife Crystal to take him to nearby St. Joseph’s hospital for an evaluation. By the time he arrived he was throwing up blood and his organs had begun shutting down. Jon says, “I’m just thinking. At that point, ‘I’m dying.’”
Jon was admitted in ICU, where an echocardiogram determined he was having congestive heart failure caused by myocarditis – a virus that attacks the heart muscle. Jon says, “I was just in survival mode. I was just praying, ‘Lord please help me to get through this.’”
Crystal called family and friends asking to pray for a miracle. Crystal shares, “We were just praying, praying over him, praying for healing, you know, asking God to preserve him, to preserve his life, let him live and not die.”
The next morning, his heart was pumping at only 10-15% of its normal rate. He was told his best chance of survival was a heart transplant. Jon says, “I never really thought about leaving this world. I never really thought about if I died, ‘where am I going?’ I never really thought if something happened, ‘what about my family?’ I was really just trying to survive.”
Crystal recalls, “I knew how critical that he was. I understood that. And the cardiologist prepared me and said that his heart might stop beating tonight. In other words, that he, you know, might pass away tonight.”
Six days later, doctors sent him to Baptist hospital in Little Rock, Arkansas, where he was put on the heart transplant list. Meanwhile, Jon gained 50 pounds of excess fluid which put even more stress on his heart and lungs.
Crystal shares, “Having all the fluid on him, it was difficult to see. It was a scary thing. He didn’t look like the same person. He was very confused, very disoriented.”
It was critical that Jon lose the fluid. But with medication it would take weeks. Jon felt like time was running out. Jon shares, “I remember in the hospital taking my daughter by the hand and telling her I love her, and saying, ‘daddy doesn’t know if he’ll ever see you again.’”
Eventually, Jon lost consciousness. Crystal continued to pray. She wondered if her husband would ever be the same. “I knew that if God did not intervene and that if he did live, that it would be a poor quality of life and not uh as long of a life expectancy as most people.”
Then on the morning of Friday, February 10th, Jon woke up. Jon says, “I remember waking up and I was so hungry. It was also that same day when I said, ‘you know I think I can get up and go use the bathroom.’ Miraculously, I was able to get up and walk and go to the bathroom by myself.”
Crystal remembers, “I was so excited and so happy because I knew that only God could have gotten him out of that bed and could have enabled him to have walked across that floor.”
The fluid began dissipating rapidly and within a matter of days, Jon lost 48 pounds of fluid. Then a test showed his heart function had improved to 50%. Jon says the nurses and doctors were amazed!
Jon recalls, “He said I’m not telling you that your heart looks better. He said it doesn’t even look like the same heart. And he said your ejection fraction, how much your heart is pumping out, is 50% which is the bottom part of normal. And my wife said, ‘praise God.’ And he cut his eyes over at her and said, ‘that’s Who did this. That’s exactly Who did this.’”
On February 15th, Jon was released from the hospital. His heart showed no signs of damage. He couldn’t wait to get home to his family. Jon shares, “Words can’t even begin to express the awesomeness of being able to come home and spend time with them again.”
Three months later, test revealed his heart was functioning perfectly. It’s been 8 years since Jon came home and he has since become a pastor. He and Crystal and their daughter Aubrey are thankful for a second chance.
Crystal says, “Now I can say for a certainty and for a surety, that God is a healer, that He's real, that miracles are still for today. You know, the Word says that God is faithful. aaAnd He is. And He will be. Just keep seeking Him. Don't give up on Him. He'll be faithful to you.”
Jon shares, “I believe the Lord was showing me that, ‘you can trust Me’; that, ‘I’ll be with you no matter what.’ I didn’t know at that time in my life that I was going to be a preacher but I believe that God was giving me a testimony so that I could share with others that no matter how bad it gets if you just trust God, He can bring you through.”
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