John 9 miracle: Woman blind for more than 20 years wakes up to see a world of colours again

Mary Ann Franco undergoes vision test at a hospital in south Florida, U.S.A. after she miraculously regained her vision following more than 20 years of blindness.(Screenshot/25WPBF News)

The impossible becomes possible when God shows His great power through miracles.

Just like the miracle described in John 9 of the Holy Bible, when Jesus gave sight to a man born blind, a woman from South Florida who lost her vision more than 20 years ago suddenly woke up in a hospital bed recently with her sight fully restored.

What happened to Mary Ann Franco remains a big mystery to her doctors but not to her. Franco said she is fully convinced that what happened to her was an act of God, according to 25WPBF News, an ABC-affiliate TV station in South Florida.

"I believe He just went ahead and give it to me. He gave me back my sight," she said. "I really believe this with all my heart."

Franco recalled that sometime in 1995, she figured in a car accident where she suffered multiple injuries, including to her spine.

As she was recuperating from her injuries, her vision began fading until she couldn't see anymore.

"It went blackish gray," she said. "And I couldn't see anything."

For 20 years, she lived the life of a blind person.

Recently, she hurt her neck when she accidentally fell on the floor of her home in Okeechobee, Florida. The accident damaged her spine and she had to undergo surgery to repair the damage.

When she woke up in her hospital bed after the surgery was performed, she was dumbfounded when she realised that she could see things again. She quickly told the nurse about it.

"I said, 'Lady, you with all that purple on you, give me something for pain,'" Franco recalled telling the nurse.

"And my niece says, 'What did you say, Mary?'"

Everyone in the room was stunned, even the doctors. For the first time in 21 years, Franco's vision has been miraculously restored.

Not only that. Even before her accident in 1995, she said she was already colour blind. But now she could see all the things around her in their natural colours. She now knows what her dog and cat look like.

"Out the window, I could see the trees," she said. "I could see the houses and stuff."

Franco's family members were beside themselves with joy and amazement at what happened to her.

Last week, Franco went to see her doctor, John Afshar, for her follow-up appointment.

Afshar was the neurosurgeon who performed her spine surgery. The doctor could not medically explain how Franco regained her sight.

"It really is truly a miracle," Afshar told 25WPBF News. "I've never seen it, never heard of it."

The doctor could only venture a guess. He said Franco's injury 21 years ago might have crimped an artery in her spine, restricting blood flow to the part of her brain that controls vision. When he operated on her spine, Afshar said he might have unwittingly "unkinked" the artery, restoring blood flow to her brain and enabling her to see once again.

"But this is all theoretical," the doctor said, adding that what happened to Franco was indeed nothing short of a medical miracle.