No Headache

As Dr. Jason Lohr was busy doing paperwork at his desk in the emergency room, he heard a speeding motorcycle come to a stop at the door. A mother jumped off carrying a small limp child in her arms, and rushed into the room. Dr. Lohr feared the worst. He dreaded having to tell the mother that her son was already dead.

The boy wasn’t moving. His eyes were shut tight, but he did have a pulse. Dr. Lohr saw that the boy’s chest was rising, but he could not wake him. He saw a large swelling on the boy’s forehead and learned that he had fallen from the second floor of a building. The boy’s breathing began to change; sometimes he took quick gasps, and other times deep breaths like sighs. Then the boy began to vomit, a bad sign. This could mean that pressure inside his head was increasing.

Dr. Lohr called a neurosurgeon (a doctor who specializes in brain surgery) for assistance. The neurosurgeon advised Dr. Lohr to put the boy on a ventilator machine, usually connected through the nose/throat, to help him breathe better and decrease the pressure in his head. The specialist arrived, and both doctors could see that the child urgently needed more medical tests and to be transported to a larger hospital.

Dr. Lohr shouted the boy’s name, but he was still deeply unconscious and didn’t respond. Would he die before the doctors could do surgery? And if they did surgery, would it be successful? Dr. Lohr prayed earnestly for the little boy, asking God to give him life.

‘I removed the breathing tube from that boy, and he’s awake and talking.’

Less than one hour later Dr. Lohr was treating another patient when he met the nurse anesthetist who had assisted him with the ventilator. “Guess what?” the anesthetist asked. “I removed the breathing tube from that boy, and he’s awake and talking.”

“What?” Dr. Lohr asked in astonishment. “Which boy? The one who fell from the second floor?” He could hardly believe what he was hearing.

“Yes,” the anesthetist replied. “He’s sitting up and talking with his mother.”

As soon as Dr. Lohr was finished with his patient, he hurried to see the boy. Sure enough, the boy was awake and talking. The swelling was gone from his forehead. Dr. Lohr looked again, just to be sure, but he couldn’t find any swelling at all. This isn’t medically possible, he thought to himself. At the very least, he must have a headache after his fall. He asked the mother, “Does his head hurt?” She asked him in the local language, and he shook his head no.

“Ask him again,” urged Dr. Lohr, thinking that he may not have understood. But the answer was still the same. No headache. Dr. Lohr thought of all the medical possibilities that could explain his improvement, but there were none. He told the boy and his mother that what had happened was from God. There was no other explanation.

“Oluwaseun!” the mother shouted. “All gratitude to God!”

Sometime later the mother brought the boy back for a follow-up visit. They came into the office with huge smiles on their faces, still thanking God for what had happened.

And in case you were wondering, he still didn’t have a headache.

The Lohr family were missionaries for five years in Nigeria, a country in West Africa between Benin and Cameroon.