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It's another afternoon in the outback for Australian native Katherine. She's at the Queensland Kmart department store shopping for candles.That's when her 12-year-old daughter shows her something she's found on one of the shelves. Well, two things.
We often hear about love at first sight and couples whose destiny is to be together. Many of us dream of finding a love like that, one that seems like it was written in the stars. One young woman thought she found the love of her life when she met him at the bank. Little did she know, they had a crazier connection than they could even imagine.His Mother Was a Labor and Delivery NursePhoto by Vicki YdeWhen Kelsey Poll was born in 2001 she almost didn’t make it. Her mother Stacy had a rare condition called velamentous cord insertion, a complication that occurs when the umbilical cord from a fetus doesn’t insert into the placenta correctly. The nurse on duty during Kelsey’s birth, Mary Ann West, never forgot the delivery. It was one of the scariest and most miraculous she had ever witnessed. While Stacy writhed in pain and recovered, Mary Ann counted Kelsey’s ten fingers and ten toes. “She touched Kelsey before I did. She put her on my stomach and let me see that she had 10 fingers and 10 toes,” Stacy Poll said.A Picture Is Worth 1000 WordsKelsey met Tyler West years later and the two instantly fell in love. What they didn't know was that their connection had started the day Kelsey was born.When Kelsey met Mary Ann the first few times, she felt like she recognized her but she couldn’t place her. Then, while looking through her baby album with Tyler, she stumbled on a photo of the nurse who had helped deliver her. Stacy was with the couple, and she immediately put two and two together.“I turned to [Tyler] and said, ‘That looks like your mom. Is that your mom?'”They couldn’t believe the coincidence, so they decided to investigate further.“We looked at the certificate with the footprints and there was a signature. I asked Tyler if that was his mom’s handwriting, and he said that it was definitely his mom’s handwriting.”A Family AffairKelsey and Tyler quickly got engaged and then married -- the two had never been more sure of anything in their lives. They knew they were meant to be. Kelsey owed her life in part to Mary Ann’s care in the delivery ward, and Mary Ann had always been impacted by the resilience baby Kelsey had shown the day she was born. The two families knew right away that they were meant to morph into one big happy group. “It was one of those things that confirmed to me that Tyler was someone I wanted to be with for the rest of my life, and it also made me feel closer to his mom and his family,” Kelsey said.You truly never know who you will cross paths with in life and the impact they will have on you.More from Goalcast:Woman Leaves Her Newborn Baby Girl in a Drop Box – The Firefighter Who Found Her Just Became Her DadParents Abandon Baby at Hospital After Being “Horrified” by His Face – Then One Woman Takes Him in as Her Own
In 2020, Jennifer and Craig Berko suffered the unimaginable — losing their youngest son, 10-year-old Frankie, to a seizure.Three years later, history seemed doomed to repeat itself when their oldest son, Sammy, 16, went into cardiac arrest and died.But miraculously, he didn't stay dead. Two hours later, he woke up. And doctors can't explain how he did it. Overcoming Death: A Miraculous RecoverySammy Berko, from Missouri City, Texas, died during what was supposed to be a fun day spent at a rock climbing gym with friends."He climbed to the top of the wall, rang the bell, as we were told, and then his body went limp, and it looked like he was either playing around or passed out," Jennifer told Houston's Fox 26. "They weren't quite sure and when they realized he was unresponsive, they lowered him slowly." Sammy's heart had stopped. A bystander, who the Berkos later learned was a radiologist, immediately started CPR. Paramedics arrived shortly afterward and took over. For TWO HOURS, paramedics and doctors desperately administered CPR before eventually calling it. The hospital staff left the grieving parents to say goodbye to yet another son.Five minutes later..."I started talking to him, just telling him how much I love him and sorry that we didn't know how to save him. Suddenly, as I started praying, my husband said, 'Oh my gosh, he's moving,'" said Jennifer.Somehow, impossibly, Sammy had cheated death.The doctors were beyond shocked."These are professionals who have been doing this their entire lives, who have seen the worst of the worst. Each and every one of them afterward came to us and said that they have never seen anything like this before. Ever. Never had they ever pronounced somebody and suddenly they came back five minutes later," Jennifer said.The doctors intubated him with a breathing tube and put him on a ventilator. But he wasn't out of the woods yet. “It was a very long night trying to keep him alive,” Craig Berko said. “His organs were massively failing, and we were told by the doctors that he’s probably going to be brain dead.”One Miracle After Another Not only did Sammy get a second chance at life, but amazingly, he suffered no neurological damage. Medically speaking, this was nearly impossible. Because of going so long without oxygen to the brain, doctors predicted Sammy would be brain-dead or at best, live out the rest of his life with a severe brain injury. They were wrong.“He’s doing amazing,” Dr. Stacey Hall, the medical director of the pediatric rehabilitation program at TIRR Memorial Hermann and one of Sammy's doctors, told Fox 26."We do see kids all the time here who have had CPR, but with very prolonged CPR, we typically see very severe global anoxic brain injury, so to me, he is a literal miracle."As a result of his cardiac arrest and multiple strokes, Sammy did suffer short-term memory loss for several weeks. He also suffered an ischemic spine injury, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. He is currently in rehab regaining strength and learning to walk with assistance. Sammy’s Experience Helped Explain His Brother’s DeathWhile in the hospital, doctors discovered that Sammy has an incredibly rare genetic disorder, Catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia (CPVT).According to the National Library of Medicine, CPVT causes an irregular heart rhythm in response to adrenaline surges. If untreated, CPVT is highly lethal, with approximately 30% of affected individuals experiencing at least one cardiac arrest.Sammy's mother, Jennifer, also has it. So did his brother, Frankie. It's what ultimately caused his death.Sammy underwent a procedure to help resolve the problem, and he and his mom will be on several medications for life to help prevent cardiac arrest.The Berkos hope that newborn screening for CPVT becomes more widely available so other families don't have to go through the same fate.How Death Puts Life Into PerspectiveThe family also says that their experience with death has put life into perspective. Because it's often through death that many of us learn to live.“You can’t take life for granted,” Craig Berko said. “[With Frankie] we’re having a good day and all of a sudden, boom, he’s gone. Life is really short and fragile.”As we all go about our busy days, we tend to forget one undeniable truth: life is finite. Every fleeting moment we have is a gift. Dying puts into perspective the preciousness of time spent with family and friends, the significance of living authentically, and the priceless act of being present in our own lives.We are really here for only a short while, and it's up to us to make every moment count.
Do you believe in divine intervention? If not, your opinion might change after hearing the moving story involving Pastor Tim Jones and a chance encounter.How One Uneventful Day Led to an Unexpected FriendshipPhoto by PixabayOne uneventful day, a North Carolina man and his wife were looking for yard sales when they heard gospel music coming from a nearby church. The music would prove to alter their lives, in ways no one could predict. Don, the husband, happened to be a gospel singer, and followed the sounds inside where he met someone who would go on to change his life -- Pastor Tim Jones. The two struck up conversation, and bonded over a shared love of singing. Pastor Jones invited Don to participate in an upcoming performance, and the two struck up a brief acquaintance. What Jones did not know, however, was that Don was unfortunately fighting a worsening health ailment. A couple of months before they met, Don had undergone a liver transplant that was supposed to help his condition, but then his kidneys started failing. RELATED: Stranger Gives Homeless Man $100 Outback Gift Card – What Happens Next Completely Changes His LifeDespite the bleak outlook of his condition at the time, Don kept the faith, telling a news network, “I had a strong faith that God was going to take care of me no matter what happened.” However, Don was facing some serious time constraints, as doctors at Duke Medical Center soon found blockages in his heart, requiring cardiac catheterization -- another serious procedure. According to the doctors, Don's kidneys wouldn’t be able to make it through the surgery, and he would need a kidney donor. Though he was on the list for a transplant, doctors told him it could take up to even years to find a suitable kidney donor -- time he did not have. How One Man Donated His Kidney to a Person He Had Just MetDon kept the faith, though, and Pastor Jones would wind up being a true harbinger.Like many stories we have covered recently, social media enters to play an unexpected role. Don's wife, Belinda, turned to an invisible network of friends and strangers alike to share their medical predicament, and ask for help. In a long heartfelt post, she wrote, "I'm (Belinda) asking you to be much in prayer with me for him." She shared that he needed a heart procedure, but his kidneys were too weak, and they could not wait for a transplant through the traditional system. RELATED: Kansas City Chiefs Fans Donate Over $300,000 to Buffalo Children’s Hospital After Dramatic Playoff Win Versus RivalsShe put out an open request for a donor, sharing that she would do it herself, but did not have the insurance necessary to cover costs of the procedure. The comment section filled quickly with prayers for the couple, and well-wishes, but the series of events that would unfold took everyone by surprise. Of all the people who saw the Facebook post, Pastor Tim Jones reached out, so moved by the post, that he offered to donate his kidney despite only meeting Don two weeks prior. It turned out he was a perfect match -- a one in 20,000 chance. The Big Surprise Doctors Discovered During SurgeryHad the two never connected weeks earlier after Don overheard some singing, Pastor Tim Jones never would have had the chance to step up and be a hero in such an inspiring way. Donating a kidney is no small gesture, and Pastor Jones volunteered to undergo the procedure for a near-stranger with little hesitation. However, the surprises do not end there. Though Pastor Jones was in the operating room to save Don, while in surgery doctors discovered that he had an aneurysm, which if not discovered could have been fatal. An aneurysm is an abnormal ballooning in the wall of a blood vessel, which can burst and cause life-threatening internal bleeding. In electing to undergo the procedure and save Don's life, Pastor Jones might have just had his own life saved in the process. The story defies all odds, and serves as an important reminder of empathy, generosity, and karma. No matter how bleak the situation seemed for Don at different points, he always kept his faith. In a follow-up Facebook post a year later, Belinda shared a touching update, reminding how "a surgery to save one life became a Miracle and saved two lives." Sometimes, real life is stranger than fiction, and this story could not have been scripted better. Pastor Tim Jones exemplifies the adage "love thy neighbor."
The pure elation that this family must have felt is indescribable.Lost for 4 daysIt was a manhunt that had all of Australia on edge. Three-year-old Anthony “AJ” Elfalak had gone missing from his family's rural home, prompting a search that involved 385 people, The Washington Post reports.AJ’s mother, Kelly, thought the boy — who is on the autism spectrum and is unable to speak — had been kidnapped and a family friend agreed, but police didn't issue an Amber Alert. They thought something else must have happened.By the fourth day, it was looking less and less likely they'd find AJ.“Some of the searches we don’t have good outcomes, and we were getting to a timeline with this one that was sort of starting to fade,” Special Constable Kevin Drake, a helicopter pilot with the New South Wales police force’s aviation-support branch, told news outlets.An indescribable feeling of reliefThe Elfalaks live on nearly 700 acres of property that backs up on a "maze" of canyons, cliffs, and bushland. Spotting the boy through this terrain was an extremely tall task, especially considering he couldn't yell to let them know where he was.But at 11:30am on the fourth day of the search, Special Constable Drake spotted AJ drinking water from a muddy puddle.“I couldn't believe it, actually,” Drake told reporters on Monday. “It was a really good feeling.”Special Constable Kevin DrakeOn Instagram, Good News Movement shared the incredible moment when the Elfalak family heard the news.An unforgettable smileAfter being examined by doctors, AJ appeared to be "remarkably" healthy, with only cuts on his lower legs and a diaper rash.It is believed that he survived by drinking muddy water, and may have also hidden in a wombat hole to save him from the freezing cold rain that fell while he was lost.State Emergency Service Chief Inspector Simon Merrick reportedly said the moment AJ was rescued was truly unbelievable. As the rescuer walked over and put his hand on his shoulder, AJ "turned towards him with a massive smile on his face that he will not forget.”Miracles do happenFor the Elfalak family, all hope must have been lost. How could a toddler survive in such rough terrain, especially one on the autism spectrum?But thanks to a tremendous search effort, he was found. Who says miracles don't happen in real life?More uplifting stories:4 Years Ago, He Was Homeless–Today, He Bought His First HousePoor Man Who Missed Job Interview To Save A Life Had Employers Lining Up To Hire HimDomestic Abuse Survivor Marries The First Responder Who Saved Her LifeBrooklyn Landlord Cancels Rent For Hundreds Of Tenants, Setting An Unprecedented Example For Others
A gut feeling from an airline agent caused her to alert authorities and potentially save a couple of young girls from a predator.A gut feelingWhen a couple of teenagers, aged 15 and 17, walked up to the airline counter for their flight from Sacramento to New York, the agent got suspicious.The girls were carrying a bunch of small bags, but had no ID.“The way they kept looking back-and-forth at each other like they weren’t really sure, and they were texting someone on the phone, and that person was giving them answers,” said the agent, Denice Miracle, to CBS Sacramento.She was also concerned since the name on the credit card that paid for the flights was under a different name.“It was a first-class ticket; it was very expensive. I told a supervisor go to call the sheriff that it just doesn’t feel right. It just didn’t feel right,” she added.Likely victims of human traffickingWhen sheriff's deputies came to speak to the tees, they said they'd met someone named "Drey" on Instagram who invited them to New York. He told them he'd pay $2,000 for a modeling gig and fly them back home — but they were shocked to find out that he'd only paid for a one-way ticket.“They were somewhat flippant saying that no, that can’t be true," said Deputy Todd Sanderson, "and I said, ‘No, the airline says you have a one-way ticket,’ and I said ‘It’s my belief you’re going back there not to do the things you think you’re going to do.’ And they said ‘I wouldn’t let anything happen that I didn’t want to.’ And I said, ‘Well, probably you wouldn’t have a choice in the matter.’”Gone without a traceWhen police went to investigate Drey on Instagram, all social media accounts had been deleted, suggesting that this person is an expert at luring teens away from home.Sanderson said that without the airline agent, the teens would undoubtedly have been victims of human trafficking. “She probably really was their miracle that day whether they want to believe it or not."Todd SandersonMiracles do happenIt would have been easy for the airline agent to let those two teenagers through. They had a ticket, and their bags -- just let them go on their way. But she didn't. She followed her gut instead, alerting authorities who say these teens were likely to become victims of human trafficking when they arrived in New York.It's easy for all of us to look the other way, to do nothing instead of causing a fuss. But this story proves that all it can take to save someone's life is to follow your gut. Who knows, if you do that, you might just make miracles happen.More uplifting stories:Perceptive Flight Attendant Saves Teenager From Clutches Of Human TraffickersCashier Trusts Her Instincts And Rescues Woman From Kidnappers Who Assaulted HerDomestic Abuse Survivor Marries The First Responder Who Saved Her LifeHeroes of the Week: Eagle-Eyed Hawaiian Airlines Flight Attendants Save 3 Girls From Human Trafficking
