Jilly Brandon

I have been pondering how to tell about this happening in my family’s life for over two weeks now, and still the right words to explain it are eluding me.  It is a miracle I believe down deep in my soul, and yet, it is so precious, and sacred I almost cannot speak of it.

Logan went to bed late at night, after an evening of being at the Rockies game in Denver with his Dad.  He was at the game with his  girlfriend, Natalie, and friends, Aiden and Brandon.  They had a great , fun filled perfectly fun  Colorado evening together.  They had enjoyed some liquid refreshment while at the park, and Logan and Aiden had finished the evening off playing some video games back at Logan and Natalie’s apartment . They were having a good time, as they often do.

Natalie was almost asleep when Logan came to bed that night. Natalie says that Logan had only just fallen asleep for perhaps five minutes, when he began this annoying humming sound.  She nudged him to

“stop it Logan,” then pushed him a little more insistently.  

He didn’t wake up.  She tried a few more pushes, but still nothing.  She began to get upset with him, because it seemed as if he was just messing around with her, and trying to bug her.  It then began to concern her.

She ran into the bathroom rubbing her eyes, and crying, and then went over to the couch to rouse Aiden from his fresh slumber.

Aiden could see that she was upset, and when she told him that she couldn’t wake Logan up, he was also concerned.  Aiden tried to shake Logan awake, finally slapping him firmly across the face.. still ….his eyes remained closed, and still Logan continued with the slightly eerie humming.

By now the two of them were perplexed at Logan’s demeanor.  Logan is a person who loves to have fun, and play jokes on his friends, and occasionally be a pain in the ass by occasionally taking a joke too far.  I’m just stating the facts… I am his Mum , I know this!  We adore this wonderful spirit that opitomizes Logan…but sometimes…he can overdo it.

The two friends looked at each other, listened to the humming, and Aiden said,

” I think we better call the paramedics.”

They quickly dialed “911,” and a policeman was the first to arrive on the scene.  The policeman tried to bring Logan around, and gave him a “sternum rub,” (which apparently is intensely painful if you are awake,) but still… nothing..he kept on with the troublesome humming.

The paramedics came, and did their due diligence, and it was determined that he needed to take a ride in the ambulance to the hospital.

From what the kids tell me it was around 2-:00- 2:30 am at this point in the early hours of the morning.

Aiden and Natalie followed behind the ambulance in the car, completely concerned, and growing increasingly fearful at Logan’s non -wakeful state.

Natalie  called Logan’s Dad, Lorin and explained what was happening.  He threw on some shorts, grabbed his flip flops, car keys, and stumbled to his car, trying to wake himself up, and put on his “Doctor cap” to figure out what exactly was going on with Logan’s state of being.

Lorin had tried to call me during this time, and finally left a message, but I slept through these calls.  I was up in Ontario, Canada at the time, at my mum’s house, and was still fast asleep, as it was just 4 am for me.

Finally, around 5:00 am,  I woke up when Aiden called me.  It took me a minute to try and comprehend that Logan was in the hospital.  With a groggy mind I listened to Aiden explain the events of the past few hours.  They were incredible .  I was concerned, but I was in by no means in a frantic frame of mind.

Logan was still humming.  They  even held the phone up to his ear, and I heard him, and tried talking to him.  I told him that it was me, that I loved him,  and asked what was going on..but still.. the humming continued.

Natalie  said that his face remained expressionless when he heard my voice a tear or two slid from his eyes, which seemed to indicate, that he was somewhat aware of my voice, but was not in a place where he was able to respond back to me.

 

This was very confusing.  He was asleep, but he was awake.  His heart rate was elevated, but every test they did on him came back normal.  They did blood work, took urine, did a CT scan on his head, did an EKG, EEG, a lumbar puncture, and still he remained in this odd catatonic state.  He would not speak, his eyes would be closed, then fly open with a panicked look on his face, and he would seemingly look right through people, not really focusing on them.  It was very scary to watch, they told me. It was distressing to witness.

Natalie played some of his own music for him, and at one point, he seemed to change his humming to the tune of  that music, but then reverted back to the original tune.

Since he had an IV line in, they administered “adavan,” and after a bit, the humming ceased, and did not resume.  The meds appeared to calm him somewhat.  Although he did not actively wake up.

Lorin was on the phone with me, and he was growing increasing fearful as to this strange, frightening catatonic state that he found his son in.

I asked him to hold Logan’s hand, and to ask Logan if he was in pain?  He squeezed Lorin’s hand to say, “yes. ”

 Then I asked Lorin to ask him if his head hurt?  He didn’t respond.  He then asked him if his chest hurt?  

Logan squeezed, “yes. ”

Lorin said he was freaking out even more at that point, and wondered if there was a “heart issue” going on.  He wanted the doctors to do a CT scan of his chest too.

During this strange set of events, Logan would lay down with his eyes closed, but then He would  open his eyes wide, grip his bed sheets with knuckles that turned white, and look straight ahead with a look of utter terror on his face.  Lorin said it was the most obscene thing he had ever seen on his son’s face.   It was obvious that wherever Logan was, he was absolutely petrified with fright.

Lorin told me that it was a terrible thing to witness.  He was frustrated, filled with fear, and said to me at this point,

” I feel like we are losing him Jill.”  “I don’t know where he is, but it feels as if he is slipping away, and I am powerless to stop it!”

At several instances during this series of events on his hospital bed he would mouth the words,

“help me.”  He seemed to be stuck in a horrific dream state of some kind.

Natalie, Aiden and Lorin looked on helplessly, and the doctor’s were quite baffled as to what they were witnessing ,  and exactly where Logan  was, and what to do next.

There were no drugs in his system, and his blood indicated that he had 5-6 beers throughout the evening.  This was not an excessive amount for  him to be acting this way. The alcohol levels in his blood concurred with this finding.

So… where was he?  Why was he not waking up?  This had never happened to him before.  He has had nightmares, and he is a person who talks in his sleep, and generally if you ask him questions while he is in a deep sleep, often he will answer you.. but never this…sleep paralysis.. so what then ? ….

The doctors said, they had never even heard of sleep paralysis, and that it was not even a recognized thing within the medical community.

Not only did Logan mouth the haunting words, “HELP ME,” he also mouthed, “KILL ME.”

As his family and friends looked on in complete quandary and concern , they were growing increasingly agitated and frightened .

Logan was slipping away, and Lorin appealed to me again, about what we could do for him.  How can we reach him?

By this point, on the other end of the phone, I sat at my Mother’s kitchen table, and she sat accross from me. We were praying ..

She was listening as I spoke to Lorin, and deep concern, and tears were welling up in her eyes.  The overhead lamp glowed a warm yellow on the tile top table, and I rested my hands on it’s cool surface.  I heard the words that Lorin was telling me, but at no point did I feel frightened. It was odd.  I was calm…

Lorin said to me with a question in his voice,

“it’s almost like he needs an…..exorcism?”  

We both kind of said the word in unison as I recall.  Even as we both said those words, it seemed that the next words out of my mouth were not my own… This is  the best way that I can describe it.

I said, ” well, we don’t need  an exorcism, we just need to call on the name of Jesus.”

Lorin said, “what do I have to do?  I will do it.”

I said,

” you need to put your hands on Logan, and you need to say in Jesus name, if there is anything dark, or otherworldly that shouldn’t be there, that in the name of Jesus, I command you to GET OUT!”

I also said, ” you need to pray this believing…..”

He said, “ok… I’ll do it..” and we both then hung up the phone.

My Mum and I joined hands at the kitchen table and we prayed for my son.  We prayed that if anything dark had a hold on him, keeping him in this frightening state of limbo, that in Jesus name, it would be released.  We thanked God  for doing this, and saving him, and we prayed believing that Logan would be well.  

Afterwards we read in my Mum’s daily reading journal, that had sat at my Grandma Hayhoe’s bedside, words that brought such comfort.  I can’t recall exactly what they were now, but all I know is that I was still very calm, and I felt just… held…assured that all would be well.

About two minutes later, Lorin face- timed me on his phone.  I snatched the phone up, and clicked it on.  

“Guess who is awake?”  He said, turning the phone camera towards Logan.  

There was Logan, eyes now open, like he had just come out of a deep sleep.  I immediately began to weep with utter joy… I was amazed.

 

This had been the state that my son had been in, seemingly asleep, unreachable, and just like that he woke up. My beautiful boy , what held him?

I was stunned…. I asked Lorin,” what did you do?”

He recounted that just he and Natalie were in the hospital room.  It was quiet.  He went and placed his hand on Logan’s head, and then simply prayed,

” if there is anything on Logan that shouldn’t be, in the name of Jesus,…GET OUT..”

He then said he went to the bathroom, and when he returned, like a light switch, Logan opened his eyes.  Natalie and Aiden said, the lights in the room dimmed right then too as Logan opened his eyes.

Logan did not know where he was.  He had no memory of the night, and still does not remember what happened.  He remembered going to bed at night, then waking up in the hospital room, and needing to go pee.  The IV had been pumping fluid into him, and he had a catheter inserted before then as well to infuse fluids, and also potassium, since he appeared to be low on that.  

The catheter had been removed, and he was helped to use the bedpan.

As I looked at my son on the face time video, He was pale, and he looked tired…. but I was so very happy to see that he was back ..

Our son came out of this delirium .  He had been somewhere, but he had been rescued.  His Dad had done that for him.  He had taken the necessary steps to save his son, when medicine, and logic were not working.  He had used faith… just that.. just the name of Jesus… that is all that was needed.

This event has had a transforming effect on many of us who have born witness to it.  I know how all of this sounds.  

It sounds unbelievable. I get that….  If this didn’t happen to us, I would be skeptical that this was not just a tall and crazy tale, and would have a hard time swallowing it myself.. Trust me, I understand ….

All I can say, is that , it is the truth… It happened.  I recognize that some have said there are other explanations available.  Sleep paralysis, mental breakdown, stress, drugs..etc.

I guess my question would be, why is it so much harder to believe in the miraculous, than it is to find a more plausible, logical explanation, and reach for answers that modern medicine could not find?

There are things that defy logic.  We know this..Jesus defies our logic.  He just does.  The ways that I have seen him work and manifest himself in my life, causes my jaw to drop in complete amazement all of the time.  

It has  been the best ride ever, certainly not pain free, but exhilarating, edge of your seat… yes… it has been that.  Would I trade it?.. no.. I wouldn’t.. I can scarcely believe that I just typed that… but it is exactly how I feel.

Miracles happen.  I have seen them.  I have seen quite a few of them, and still, each and every time, I think, how can this be?.. There must be a logical reason for this outcome….and yet.. there is not….

Sometimes…..it is a miracle.. Prayers are answered, and fresh hope is renewed.  I can scratch my head, and try to figure out the wonder of it all, or I can just feel so grateful, that I got to have a front row seat in something that can’t be explained away .

Logan was released from the hospital the next day, and went back to his home.

He was extremely tired, and slept for almost 2 days.  His muscles were all very exhausted like they had been clenched and worked out for an extensive period of time, and almost like he had been  working out all night, or running some unseen race….and perhaps even I believe ..he was fighting for his life.

He had been in a battle, a struggle, he had been somewhere else.

I flew in on that Saturday, and spent the next 6 days with he and Natalie at their apartment.  We talked a lot about that night, and it was explained to him what had occurred.  He remained very quiet.  I think he was trying to process, as we all were, these fantastical events.

I prayed  throughout their apartment.   I asked for protection over them, and that their apartment would be free from darkness.  We read Psalm 23, and I encouraged  them to call on the name of Jesus for anything.  He was with them, and he cared about them.

I took him afterwards to a kind “faith filled therapist” that had been very helpful to me in these last few years.  Logan  had met her once, and she really helped him, by praying with him, and me too.  He seemed more relaxed after meeting with her.  We recited Psalm 91 together, and yes, I cried more.  I was overwhelmed..It felt as if I was watching these events from someone else’s body.

I am so humbled as I recount this story, and try to take in this supernatural event in our lives.   This has caused some deep healing and forgiveness to occur in our family. This was unexpected.  I had not believed it to be possible.

I have  so much more to share, as the dynamics of this story continue to unfurl.  This has touched our lives, and this is transforming us from one moment to the next.  This has been fantastic to behold, and the power of prayer continues to boggle my mind.

Two things… Pray…and Jesus….that is all, the beginning and the end, the alpha and the omega…the first and the last.

Jesus is the answer to the question. Believing in him and trusting him allows miracles to occur. It feels so simplistic , and it is …beautifully simple .