#64 Hope Amidst Suffering: A 5-Year-Old’s Journey - Curtis & Deann Lewis — Compelled Podcast

Curtis and Deann Lewis took their 5-year-old daughter Natalie in for a routine heart procedure. But during the operation, something went terribly wrong.

The doctors shared the terrible news that Natalie would never recover, and probably, not even survive.

And just like that, Curtis and Deann were thrust into the most difficult season of their lives... faced with decisions about trust, forgiveness, and ultimately... hope.

The following is a summary of the podcast interview above with Curtis and Deann Lewis. Many more details are included in the original podcast episode and we encourage you to listen.

Written by Jace Bower

Curtis and Deann met while Curtis was attending Master’s University and got married a few years later. Their first child was born in 2013 and their second, their daughter Natalie, was born in 2015.

When Natalie was only four months old, Deann noticed that something wasn’t quite right. Natalie was transitioning to a bottle and was struggling. Deann took her in to avoid dehydration and the pediatrician who saw her didn’t seem concerned.

But Deann’s intuition led her to get a second opinion. She went to the family’s local pediatrician and within moments of arriving, 911 was called due to Natalie’s dangerously increased heart rate.

Diagnosed With SVT

Natalie was rushed to the hospital and stabilized. Curtis, who had been on a work trip, flew home and joined his family. During the course of events, Curtis and Deann learned that their daughter had a condition called SVT (Supraventricular Tachycardia). This condition on its own is fairly common but Natalie’s situation was exceptionally dangerous because she also had something called WPW (Wolff Parkinson White syndrome). This, in combination with SVT, could lead to atrial fibrillation.

Natalie had been born with this condition and since her parents had caught the diagnosis early in her life, they worked with the doctors to manage her SVT and stabilize Natalie’s health. Despite her health issues, Natalie was able to enjoy a normal childhood.

Although Natalie’s heart conditions could be managed sufficiently by medication, Curtis and Deann were beginning to see side effects from the medication use and decided to pursue a more permanent solution that would be more sustainable in the long term. This led them to pursue catheter ablation.

A Simple Procedure

This procedure was the simplest surgery available for situations like Natalie’s and presented the least amount of risk compared to other alternatives. The Lewis family needed to wait until Natalie was the right age and weight. When she was five years old, she was ready.

After many prayers and well-wishes from their church family, Curtis, Deann, and Natalie drove out to the hospital where the surgery would take place. It was Good Friday, 2021. Due to Covid-19 restrictions, only one of Natalie’s parents could accompany her in the hospital so Curtis dropped Deann off with Natalie. Deann accompanied her back to the surgical area and was told by a female nurse that she would call Deann by 10:00 am that morning to update her on the surgery.

Something Goes Wrong

So Deann went out to wait with Curtis in a garden on the hospital grounds. 10 AM passed with no call. By 10:30, Deann was starting to get nervous. Not too long after, her phone rang and she answered. But instead of the female nurse’s voice, she heard a male voice on the other end. It was the doctor and he urged Deann to come inside as something had gone wrong during the surgery.

Deann asked the doctor if Natalie was still alive and all he could say was “At this moment, she’s still alive.”

Curtis and Deann began to learn details about what had happened. During the procedure, Natalie’s heart had been perforated and it had taken the medical team fifteen minutes to get her to a point where she wouldn’t die immediately. Then they went in and did emergency open-chest surgery to keep her alive. The doctors were concerned about brain damage. She had been on the verge of death for fifteen minutes and it was too soon to tell what kind of impact this would have on Natalie’s brain.

Hopes Rise and Recede

It was hard to process such a grave situation. Slowly, the implications began to dawn on Curtis and Deann. Their daughter had just had life-saving heart surgery. Her future was still very much in question.

The couple’s hopes for their daughter’s recovery rose on Saturday as Natalie began to awaken and respond. By Sunday, however, their hopes began to recede. The signs of a full recovery were not evident.

An Impossible Decision

On Tuesday, Natalie was taken in for an MRI and the doctors broke the bad news to Curtis and Deann: every part of Natalie’s brain had been damaged. She would be taken off the ventilator the next day and Curtis and Deann needed to think about their decision in the case that Natalie couldn’t breathe on her own.

This was a brutally hard decision to face for parents who dearly loved their five-year-old little girl. Natalie was in a lot of pain due to her brain’s malfunction and writhed in her hospital bed. Around three in the morning, Deann called Curtis to pick her up and they went back to their hotel. Before they returned to the hospital, they made the difficult decision to let their daughter go if she couldn’t breathe on her own.

A Sign of Hope

When Natalie was removed from the ventilator, Curtis and Deann waited an agonizing few seconds before their daughter took her first breath. The couple felt so relieved when that happened. This didn’t mean a full and immediate recovery but it did mean that Natalie was holding on and there was hope.

Curtis and Deann were facing a situation where they needed to balance their hope in God’s ability to heal Natalie with the pessimistic diagnosis of the medical staff, who would consider it a best-case scenario if Natalie could just smile again in her life. The Lewises didn’t want to presume on God’s healing since they knew that He had not explicitly promised to heal Natalie on this side of eternity. However, they wanted to maintain faith that He could heal her if He chose.

After consulting with doctors, the Lewises decided to put Natalie into a medically-induced coma to try to get her body to reset so that she could escape the agonizing pain she was experiencing. So the Lewises left her in the capable hands of the doctors and nurses and spent some time with their other children. When they returned, a miracle was happening.

Miraculous Progress

Natalie was beginning to wake up, smile, and follow things with her eyes. She still had a long road ahead of her, but she was already beginning to do things that the doctors had told Curtis and Deann that she would never be able to do. After 110 days at the hospital, Natalie's condition had improved to the point where the doctors allowed her to finally return home.

The transition to caring for Natalie at home came with its own challenges. She needed constant attention and required extensive medication. As the family adjusted to their “new normal”, they continued to pray that God would grant them grace for this new challenge.

By God’s grace, Natalie responded extremely well to being home around her siblings. Gradually, Curtis and Deann were able to wean her off her medications one by one. She even regained the use of one of her arms and began to show promising signs of progress in her speech.

God Writes Natalie’s Story

As Natalie continued to make progress in her recovery, the story of God’s grace and power in her life was spreading through social media groups and among the hospital staff who attended to her. One unbelieving doctor described what happened to Natalie as a “miraculous” recovery. God's power was shining through this little girl’s life and touching many lives.

Suffering is part of life and this is no different for faithful Christians. Curtis and Deann reflected on how they found comfort from the Gospel in the midst of their sufferings with Natalie. God was still good and was working the events of Natalie’s trial for the good of the Lewises and for His glory.

Natalie’s condition has led to a community of support surrounding her and her family and many prayer warriors rising up to intercede for the Lewises. God is continuing to work in Natalie’s story and her parents are genuinely excited to see how the story unfolds.

—
Jace Bower is a writer with a passion for justice and biblical principles. He writes at jacebower.com.

Win an autographed copy of “When Life Crumbles”

Note: Winner must live within the United States.

Go Deeper with Curtis and Deann Lewis

Natalie’s website: PrayForNatalie.com
Natalie’s Instagram page
Natalie’s Facebook group
Natalie’s GoFundMe for ongoing expenses
Buy a copy of Curtis and Deann’s book, When Life Crumbles (forward by John MacArthur)