Just when doctors asked her family members if they could take her off life support and let the “lost cause” die, Lisa Martin woke up from a 40-day Covid coma.
“God had other plans,” a Dec. 31 hospital statement says. “On the 11th day, Lisa broke out of the sedatives and began following Jeff with her eyes and she even moved her hand.”
Now Lisa, a 49-year-old mother of four, is being called a “miracle patient.” In all, she spent 59 days on a ventilator at Memorial Satillo Health in Georgia, including the induced Covid coma. She suffered a frontal lobe stroke during the health ordeal.
When Lisa didn’t come out of the coma (her eyes were fixed), hospital staff approached the family October 20th and asked them to make the hardest decision of their lives: take Lisa off life support. They held a family conference. Her youngest son was the last to speak and said, “We are not pulling that plug. I’m not ready to be without my mama.” Earlier in September, Lisa had created a living will with a ‘do not resuscitate.
But when the family was pressed for a decision, Lisa woke up. Today, she’s re-learning how to walk, talk, swallow and eat. Her daughter, Madison, said the road of recovery “has changed our lives for the better.”
“Did it suck for my mom to get COVID, almost die and now fight to get back to having a normal life? Absolutely!” Madison says. “But if God wanted to use my mom as an example on how to keep faith during struggles, dark times and hardships, then I thank God for using my mom.
Lisa also credits God for the miracle. “I am shocked but amongst all the overwhelming feelings, I feel like this is definitely a God thing,” she told People Magazine. “I got to a point where I felt like no one cared for me. I didn’t have a lot of friends, my kids are all grown up and independent and my husband works all the time. I was lonely, but this experience has shown me how loved I truly am.”