#keephopealive – It’s a modern-day miracle, says Kiara’s family
A smiling Kiara softly whispered a 'thank you' to her South Coast family and friends for all their support and prayers during her recovery.
Less than a month after Kiara Mun-Gavin (13) was seriously injured in a car accident her neurosurgeon is preparing to discharge her from hospital.
https://www.facebook.com/richardmungavin1/videos/594428344348067/
He thinks she’s ready to go home for a stint, before returning to hospital for a follow up brain surgery.
So sometime next week, against all odds, Kiara will walk out of hospital.
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Her remarkable progress after suffering a severe brain injury as the result of a serious car accident on Christmas Eve has amazed specialists and has given many people renewed hope and faith.
A smiling Kiara softly whispered a ‘thank you’ to her South Coast family and friends for all their support and prayers during her recovery.
Speaking to the Herald from Netcare Umhlanga Hospital on Monday this week, Kiara’s mother, Jaci said it’s been a difficult three weeks since the accident in which a motorcycle crashed into the passenger side door of Jaci’s car, smashing through the window onto Kiara’s head.
The accident left her with a fractured skull, with some of the bone fragments lodged in her brain.
The driver of the motorbike suffered minor injuries
The gravely injured teen underwent two surgeries within 12 hours, and remained in an induced coma for a week.
She has been awake for two weeks, and doctors will be performing open brain surgery to repair the damage in the near future.
“She still doesn’t have the side of her skull in place, as part of it has been placed in her abdomen, to keep it safe and the bone alive while her brain swelling comes down,” said Jaci.
“We are thankful that it’s been an exceptionally speedy recovery. Every day it feels like she is at least six months further ahead than she was the day before.
“She is impressing everyone, including the specialists and surgeon, with her remarkable recovery. Her memory seems to be intact, but ‘learned’ behaviour – for example, remembering that the first floor is not the ground floor or which way to cut an avocado – has to be re-learned. But when she is told something, she remembers it instantly.”
Jaci, a senior pastor alongside her husband Richard at Anthem Church in Durban North, has deep family ties to the South Coast.
Richard and Jaci married on Umtentweni beach, and they have seven children, all of whom are home schooled.
The couple lived in Ramsgate and pastored at Southcity Church from 2008 to 2012, before leaving to head up Anthem Church.
Thousands of people around the world have been praying for the teen since the accident.
Jaci said the support from Southcity Church and Southcity Christian School has been incredible.
Pastor Harry Lourens and his wife, Wendy, have visited several times, a group from the church set up a 24-hour prayer roster, and for 10 days a mothers’ dance group got together every night to dance, sing and pray for Kiara’s recovery.
Three months before the accident
Jaci explained that in October, Kiara had received a prophecy that God would gently push her into the limelight, and that there would be a little suffering, but at the end of the day she would have many, many shoes (like ballet pointe shoes which cause a little suffering). To sum it up, the prophecy was around ‘shoes’, ‘intelligence’, ‘suffering’ and ‘limelight’.
Do you believe this is a miracle?
Jaci said Kiara slipped into a level two coma on Boxing Day, meaning that there was no measurable brain activity.
“Doctors warned that the highest probability was for the worst outcome, and we brought the children to say goodbye. Her brain had switched off and her heart was shutting down. For 70 hours her brain swelling was so severe that there was insufficient oxygen reaching her brain. Doctors told us that if she didn’t die, she would either be a ‘sleeping beauty’, suffer severe brain damage, or have stroke-like symptoms.”
Jaci, who has barely left Kiara’s side, said the human body is amazing, and is a miracle in itself.
“In contrary to dire medical expectations, God stepped in and performed a miracle. A group of Kiara’s friends, girls aged between 11 and 13 years and who were trained in prayer were annoyed that people seemed to expect the worst on Boxing Day. It almost seemed as if they had been prepared for this moment. They continued praying for three days with little to no sleep.
“We believe God chooses to partner with us and He chooses to respond to the prayers of His people. There are numerous examples in the bible where He allowed people to change the course of history. Yes, I do believe this is one of these moments.”
Why does God heal some people, and not others?
Jaci explained that when trying to understand God, there are many things humans cannot understand, but that there is some consistency in the belief that God is always good and always kind, just like He is omnipresent (everywhere), omniscient (knows everything) and omnibenevolent (all loving/kind).
“The only thing God can’t do is go against His character. So obviously we don’t understand the suffering of the world, but rest assured, as I was in pain for those first two to three days, I remembered always that God had watched his Son suffer. There was no callousness in those moments as we were saying goodbye to Kiara, only the compassion and kindness of God.”
Since the accident has your faith grown?
“Yes, and yet I think God prepared Richard and I for the past 18 months, if not longer. There have been specific moments where we can say our faith in God’s current creative power has been strengthened.”
Jaci said she receives hundreds of messages from people saying. “I never believed”, or “Now my faith has grown stronger” or “I had said goodbye to God but now I’m willing to start again”.
What if the outcome wasn’t this positive?
“Whatever suffering we experience, we know God uses it for good and for glory. And we were okay with that in the early days… it was painful, but we had the knowledge that God would use it for ultimate good. Obviously, it’s delightful now to be able to boast about such restoration and victory – either way, we would have boasted about God.”
Jaci describes her daughter as ‘really positive’ and as ‘taking it all in her stride’.
“She has been strong, brave, gracious and has engaged people shyly, as she doesn’t like to be in the limelight.”
And although she has expressed irritation and sadness at times, her overriding emotions are complete peace, calm and surrender.
“She is totally celebrating the way God is drawing people to Himself.”
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