Earlier this year, the heart of 14-year-old John Smith stopped beating after he fell in an ice-covered Lake Sainte Louise in Missouri for 15 minutes.
Dr. Kent Sutterer, who attended to Smith at the SSM St. Joseph Hospital West, said the eighth grader had very poor chances of survival after the accident, and later on pronounced him dead.
After 45 minutes, however, and following continued prayers from Smith's mom, the patient's heart began beating again, much to the surprise of doctors in the hospital.
Could this be a case of resurrection? Joyce Smith, John's mother, believes that her son was revived by the Holy Spirit.
"I don't remember what all I said. But I remember, 'Holy God, please send your Holy Spirit to save my son. I want my son, please save him.' And they hadn't been getting a pulse at that time, so all of a sudden I heard them saying, 'We got a pulse, we got a pulse," Mrs. Smith said.
Smith's pastor, Jason Noble, also thinks that the teenage boy was resurrected from the dead.
"It's the first time I've ever seen someone raised from the dead and healed," Noble said.
The pastor also shared that Smith's revival triggered a wave of healings in his church, the First Assembly of St. Peters, which he believes are miraculous.
For instance, a church member who suffered a stroke regained consciousness during the same week of the incident. Two members of the church were also healed of cancer.
"We've prayed ever since we got here that the Lord would do miracles. It's bolstered the faith of the whole church," Noble shared.
The incident also sparked renewed interest in the concept of resurrection. A movie called "90 Minutes in Heaven" will premiere on televisions this September.
Also in the coming months, cardiologist Dr. Chauncey Crandall will release his book entitled "Touching Heaven" about how his patient returned to life after he prayed.
