Miracles come in all shapes and sizes. Some are noticeable and leave an impression, and some don't. But this story will stay with us for a while.
We received a call about a young Jewish girl named Maxine, who had been admitted to the nearby hospital with serious injuries and was being treated in the Intensive Care Unit. We dropped everything and made our way to the hospital at once. Once we arrived there the details started to emerge. On July 4th, on a nearby island called Kauai, Maxine had been involved in a serious car accident. Since there's no hospital there equipped to deal with this kind of serious case, she was flown via air ambulance to Honolulu.
We were greeted by Maxine's mother who had flown in on the air ambulance together with her. She described to us the various external injuries that her daughter had sustained including a broken collarbone, broken arm and broken ankle. At the time, they were still unsure about any internal head injuries. Whilst there, we said some chapters of Psalms and a recited a Mi Shebeirach prayer by her bedside. We spoke about belief and the Chassidic teaching that thinking good will bring good results. We also mentioned that G‑d doesn't allow a person to confront a difficult situation without giving him/her the extra strength to overcome it.
During our whole discussion the mother kept on saying that the ideas that we are mentioning are not just a belief for her but actual knowledge. Her faith and resolve was inspiring. As we turned to leave, the daughter—who was heavily sedated at the time and had seemed to be unaware of her surroundings—suddenly piped up and said, "Bye guys. Thanks for coming."
When we arrived the next day, her room was vacant. Fearing the worst, we asked what happened. After some searching, we located her in the neurological ward. We asked the mother when her daughter had been moved. She replied, "actually half an hour after you left, the doctor came in and said it's now ok to be moved out of the ICU!" After conversing and helping Maxine's brother put on tefillin, we entered the room together. To the mother's shock, Maxine suddenly awoke and starting conversing with her brother! After the conversation subsided, we all opened a book of Psalms and said some chapters. As we finished, Maxine turned to her mother and asked, "Mum can I pray to G‑d to fix my collarbone?" She then looked heavenwards, and asked G‑d to fix her collarbone.
Every day we went back, and with each visit, her condition improved dramatically. When the news came back from the doctors that there was no internal head injury, we knew the worst was over. When we came on Sunday, just over one week from the accident, Maxine was ready to go back to Kauai on a flight scheduled for the next night. Recounting the events of the previous week, her mother described how she could not believe that just one short week from that fateful air ambulance ride—when she was unsure if her daughter would ever recover—her daughter was well on the way to a full and healthy recovery.
