An Argentine girl risked her life or remained in a vegetative state. After a night of prayer he recovered from a very serious encephalopathy: the episode attributed to the Pontiff took place on July 23, 2011 in Buenos Aires.
VATICAN CITY. The helicopter flight from a hospital in the Argentine state of Paraná to the prestigious Favaloro Institute, one of the most advanced hospitals in the capital Buenos Aires, is desperate. There is very little hope of saving the life of little Irene (invented name), a girl suffering from “severe acute inflammatory encephalopathy, malignant refractory epileptic state epilepticus, septic shock”, as stated in the medical bulletin. It is the month of May of the year 2011. The best expectation for the girl is the vegetative state. But ten years later, that little girl has become a 21-year-old girl who is fine, she has completed her secondary school regularly and now attends, cheerful and determined, the university in the Argentine hinterland, giving encouraging perspectives to her family – mother and two sisters – living in dignified poverty. And Irene with her family yesterday rejoiced and celebrated – “she was very happy”, assures those who spoke to her – at the news that reached the other side of the world, from the Vatican Sacred Rooms: her “savior”, Albino Luciani who became Pope John Paul For thirty-three days in 1978, he will become blessed at the behest of a successor, Francis, a fellow countryman of the “miraculous”. For the beatification of a non-martyr, the Church “demands” a miracle. Here’s how it went.
Irene’s ordeal began “on March 20, 2011” – reads the papers of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints – with “a severe headache that continued until March 27, when fever, vomiting, behavioral and speech disorders occurred. “. The diagnosis is devastating: “Acute onset epileptic encephalopathy, with refractory status epilepticus to unknown etiology.” The clinical picture is very serious, with numerous daily epileptic seizures, “so much so that it was necessary to intubate her”. Two months pass, and the situation does not improve. Thus, on May 26, “the little girl was transferred, with a reserved prognosis, to Buenos Aires”. Two more months with no light on the horizon. And on July 22, the clinical condition “worsened further due to the appearance of a septic state of bronchopneumonia.” The doctors summon family members to pronounce the sentence of “imminent death”.
But they did not take into account a parish priest, Father Josè, the pastor of the nearby parish. The priest “went to the little girl’s bedside and proposed to her mother to ask together for the intercession of John Paul I, to whom he was very devoted”. That night – with “a long moment of prayer”, says the postulator of the cause, Cardinal Beniamino Stella – whoever loves Irene spiritually clings to the white robe of the Venetian Pope who died 33 years earlier, to ask him to “convince” God to perform the prodigy.
The next day, July 23, 2011, in the general surprise, there was “a rapid improvement in septic shock, which continued with the recovery of hemodynamic and respiratory stability”. And in the following weeks it will be a succession of good and extraordinary news. On 8 August the patient is “extubated”; on 25 August “the status epilepticus appeared resolved and on 5 September the patient was discharged”. The child will regain “complete physical and psycho-cognitive-behavioral autonomy”. Healed. Inexplicably from a medical-scientific point of view. For the theologians, “the causal link with the invocation to John Paul I” proved clear.
Oltretevere explain that it is a “restitutio ad integrum”, one of those “big” miracles, more there is only the resurrection: it means that the serious damage, in particular to the brain, caused by the disease has been fully reconstituted.
Unlimited access to all site content
€ 1 / month for 3 months, then € 3.99 / month for 3 months
Unlock unlimited access to all content on the site
.