Hundreds Prayed for a Girl with No Chance

“I was so scared, like, what are we walking into?” Alison Rogan, Layla’s mother, questioned. “Is she alive? Is she dead?” Alison and Jeremiah Rogan, parents of the lively and outspoken 15-year-old Layla, had just learned that she had been in an accident with a friend. What they didn’t know were the details. “I was like, you just need to pray. Everybody tell everyone you can— they need to pray,” Alison stated.
The Rogans had dropped off Layla the night before to stay at a friend’s house. They were at the beach with their youngest daughter, Callie, when they found out that Layla and her friend had struck the back of a parked vehicle while driving an ATV at 55 miles per hour.

“I called a friend who lived near that spot,” Alison recalled. “He called me back and said, ‘They’re loading her up. You need to get to St. Mary’s Hospital right now.’ He said, ‘There’s two—one is really serious, the other is awake and talking and not as serious.’”

“The silence made me panic,” Alison continued. “No one was calling us. I couldn’t get phone numbers out fast enough…and nobody was telling us anything. It’s almost like no one wanted to say it. We knew she was the one in critical condition.”

At St. Mary’s Hospital in West Palm Beach, Florida, the Rogans arrived just in time to see the aircraft land. “We get there, and I tried to run towards the helicopter. But they were screaming at me, ‘You need to go inside! You need to go inside!’” Alison said.

“I went inside,” she continued. “And I don’t even know what I’m supposed to say. What do you say when you’re here? My kid just landed in the helicopter. I don’t know why I’m here! I don’t know how bad this is. I don’t even know if she’s alive.”

“This could be the last time,” Jeremiah Rogan, Layla’s father, stated. “Your mind is going so fast.”

Medical staff told the family that their daughter had suffered a traumatic brain injury and was in a coma. The next 72 hours were critical.

“I’m not going to hear that,” Jeremiah said. “You don’t know her… she’s tough. She’ll beat this.”

Layla survived the night, but doctors weren’t hopeful. News quickly spread about the accident, and by the next day, friends and family of Layla’s began gathering outside her window at the hospital, hosting prayer vigils.

“I was just stunned. I was amazed that all of these people were here for my daughter,” Alison said. “There’s a part of me that thought, ‘God has to hear this, right? Maybe He didn’t hear me, but He had to hear all these people praying.’”

Ten days after the accident, and still in a coma, Layla underwent three surgeries. Her dad kept his faith alive. “I thought, this girl’s going to come back,” he said. “She’s going to walk, talk, and dance again.”

“She’s always loved cheerleading,” Alison said. “She loves performing. I mean, the kid could just get in front of an audience, and she was home.”
Finally, two weeks later, Layla woke up.

“The first time she opened her eyes, you just go… there’s those blue eyes,” Jeremiah said. “We were so excited.”

“It just breathed a little bit of hope into us,” Alison exclaimed.
Within weeks, the feeding tube was removed, and Layla was eating and walking. She spent only three months in rehab before being discharged.

“There’s no way I could’ve made this great of a recovery if God wasn’t by my side,” Layla said. “There’s nothing to explain. All these doctors have looked over my reports and told me that there’s no way… but God.”

Layla gave her life to Jesus Christ as a result of this event. Today, she’s a college student with an Instagram page titled “Layla’s TBI Journey” in hopes of reaching others who have also experienced traumatic brain injuries and encouraging them to trust God and believe in miracles.

“When you realize all you have is God—no doctor, no textbook—nothing’s going to save the person you’re praying for, but God,” Jeremiah said. “Pray, be faithful, miracles happen.”

“God doesn’t give us anything we can’t handle,” Alison explained. “But that’s not true. He does, and there’s typically a reason for it. Layla’s accident was definitely more than I could handle. But it did exactly what I think it was designed to do… it drew me closer to God.”

“God saved my life,” Layla said. “I’m showing people His love, and the end goal of my life is to show Christ’s love and show how great our God is.”