Wanda arrived at Florida Hospital Altamonte with pneumonia that developed into acute respiratory distress syndrome – a sudden, life-threatening lung failure that starves the body of oxygen. She was intentionally put into a temporary coma and a ventilator assisted her breathing, but unexplainable complications occurred. After more than a month of treatment, the end seemed near.

“The doctors called my family in and told them that they expected my organs were just shutting down and that I could go into cardiac arrest within a couple of hours,” says Wanda. The family needed to determine how aggressive physicians should be, knowing that even if she lived, she likely would be severely handicapped.

“No matter how much you have done for a patient, and no matter how good your technology and your team are, it comes to a point that it’s certainly God’s will whether you’re going to survive or not,” says Wanda’s pulmonologist, Francis Calimano, MD.

“Our son stood up and said, ‘there’s no need to discuss it. Keep reviving her.’ God gave my son and daughter and my husband and extreme measure of faith that day,” says Wanda, who recovered fully. “The presence of family and friends and the Christian community coming together in a situation like this is a beautiful picture. Nurses came in and took the hands of my husband and my son and prayed for me. I can’t tell you what a comfort that is.”