Prayer matters — and that’s a powerful lesson Melanie and Mike Leitner learned firsthand during their baby daughter’s recent struggle for survival, as she battled a potentially deadly heart ailment.
Doctors told the family that they were “in a race against time,” as baby Ella had a large mass in the left ventricle of her heart; they said she might not make it to her first birthday, leaving Melanie and Mike to find hope in their faith, as WBTV-TV reported.
As Ella waited for a new heart, Melanie and Mike saw her condition worsening. The baby regularly appeared gray and wasn’t breathing well. Then, on Jan. 29, while Melanie and Mike were worshipping at Abundant Life Foursquare Church in Mooresville, North Carolina, something profound happened.
Their pastor stopped in the middle of service and decided to pray for Melanie, Mike and little Ella, telling the entire congregation about the baby’s worsening condition.
“(The preacher) said our little girl is failing, she’s getting sicker and we need to pray,” Melanie told WBTV-TV. ” They prayed over her and they prayed over us.”
Meanwhile, prayers were also being said over at Levine Children’s Hospital, as a new MedCenter aircraft was being dedicated at the same time Melanie, Mike and Ella were being prayed over at the church.
Then, moments later, the family believes God came through.
“On our way home from church we got the call that changed our world. Celine, our other coordinator, called and said we got the offer for the perfect heart for Ella,” Melanie told the outlet. “If this wasn’t a God moment, I don’t know what could be.”
So, the new MedCenter aircraft that was dedicated that very day ended up flying Ella’s new heart to the hospital — and it all unfolded right after the pastor and the congregation prayed for — and over — the family.
Baby gets lifesaving heart transplant moments after church halts service to pray for her: https://t.co/LBp0v5Cttv pic.twitter.com/SlFIbqk33A
— WBTV News (@WBTV_News) March 15, 2017
It should also be noted that there’s another astounding element to the story: Ella’s new heart isn’t her blood type, with doctors performing the hospital’s first-ever ABO incompatible heart transplant.
Baby Ella is now thriving, and her family is grateful for the choice that was made to donate the heart that saved Ella’s life.
(H/T: WBTV-TV )
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