“I don’t know how you could hear my story and my testimony and not believe that there is a God.”
That’s how Cameron Cortman describes his miraculous, death-defying journey — a remarkable voyage of trust, survival, and true reliance in the face of life-altering storms.
Cortman, 24, said his family’s harrowing experience began when he was a 1-year-old and his parents were preparing to move to Virginia Beach, Virginia.
But on the day of their move, something happened that would change the course of their lives.
“I got sick with an ear infection in the hustle and bustle of moving,” he told CBN News. “My mom took me to the doctor. She thought it was just a routine ear infection. I had been getting them a lot lately.”
But Cortman’s mom felt deep in her gut that something else was going on. In fact, after the doctor prescribed antibiotics, she paused to share something she experienced on the way to his office.
“[She said], ‘Actually, on the way over here, the Lord spoke to me and told me that something is seriously wrong and that we need to go to the hospital,’ which is just a wild thing to say to a doctor,” Cortman recounted. “But, thankfully … the doctor was a Christian and he said, ‘Who am I to really argue with the Lord? So we can send you to the hospital.’”
Despite the doctor feeling relatively unconcerned at the time, he knew Cortman’s mother was resolute that she had heard from God. So he complied and called an ambulance — a fortunate choice considering what happened next.
“They start to run pretty much every test imaginable, and they come back a few hours later and say, ‘We’re so sorry, 95 percent of your son’s blood cells are leukemia. He probably won’t make it through the night,’” Cortman said.
The shocking news, which upended the family’s lives, confirmed everything his mother had felt.
“As you can imagine, it’s just a mix of utter disbelief, and shock, and starting to grieve, and really just confusion of what to do,” Cortman said. “And I think you kind of immediately go into a mode of, ‘OK, let’s figure out next steps.’”
Cortman began intense chemotherapy, which carried its own risks for such a young child.
And the family began pressing into the community around them, with Cortman expressing how “blessed” they were to have loving people around to help care for both him and his brother.
Leaning into God and prayer, though, were the main recipes for tackling the chaos.
“They just really sought to … understand from the Lord how they could be faithful through the journey,” Cortman said.
These tools were essential as Cortman faced four years of hospital stays, chemotherapy, and other interventions. Along the way, the uncertainty required a profound reliance on the Almighty.
“It was one of those situations where, ‘OK, I lived a week,’ then they’re like, ‘Let’s see how long he can live,’ basically, which is crazy to say,” Cortman said. “I can’t even imagine being my parents and just never really knowing if I was going to make it the next day, or the next month, or the next year.”
Remarkably, the cancer eventually disappeared, something Cortman said was “miraculous.” And that’s not all.
“What’s crazy about that situation — other than the fact that I was completely cured from cancer — is they said to my parents, ‘Although he is cancer free, he’s not out of the woods. So there is a very good chance that he’s not able to speak like everyone else would. He might not be able to walk. He might not be able to talk,’” Cortman said, noting these dire effects could have come from the chemotherapy.
He continued, “The chances of it having serious side effects on your brain, on your body is very high. So to go from that to where I am today … a former college athlete [who] had the opportunity to play sports at the highest level, it’s just only God.”
Cortman, who is now the director of digital marketing at Great American Media, a company that produces faith and family-friendly programming, said the entire experience has made him intensely driven and devoted in all he does.
His focus today is spreading the Gospel and working to advance the Christian faith, helping brands like Great American Family and Great American Pure Flix create and market positive, faith-affirming content
Connecting the dots between his own medical miracle, God’s plan for his life, and an undying trust, Cortman’s journey to Great American Media is a fascinating one. But his faith is truly driving it all — a deeply fostered and abiding love rooted in his family’s journey.
Reflecting back on the experience, Cortman said he can’t imagine what it was like for his parents to grapple with potentially losing their baby at any moment.
“So much of my faith … I credit to them because I think most people in situations like that, it’s very easy for them to turn against God, turn against each other,” he said. “The fact that they relied on God through that and then came out on the other side stronger … their marriage is still very strong and that their faith is still very strong — I don’t think that I would have the same faith that I have today had they not responded the way they did through that whole journey.”