Joe Suarez refused to die

It was the day after Christmas 2012, and Joe Suarez had taken his children, Hailey and Hayden, to the park to ride their new scooters. It was a happy day for everyone, especially Joe. After years of drug addiction, he was clean; he had been healed. It was a miracle. Little did he know that he was on the cusp of another miracle. As Joe remembers the unfolding of events, “the devil tried to kill him, but Yahweh, the Almighty had other plans.”

While the kids were riding their scooters, Joe rode his skateboard. Everybody was having a good time, until suddenly Joe fell. He got back on his skateboard, and within seconds he fell again. This time he lost his helmet and his head hit the concrete. It cracked his skull in several places. It was obviously very serious. Joe stumbled around vomiting with blood coming out of his eyes and ears. Melissa, the mother of his children, called 911, and in minutes Joe was on his way to the hospital.

By the time they arrived, Joe was delirious. Not knowing what he was doing, he punched a doctor. Following this, they put Joe in a medically induced coma. He had sustained a traumatic injury, and his brain was swelling. To keep him alive, they removed three plates from his skull and put him on life support, which included a tracheotomy. The physicians began to doubt that Joe would survive.

At that point, numerous friends and family members began to pray continuously for Joe. An uncle who was a pastor came to the hospital and sat down with the doctors while he prayed for Joe. Donna, his mother, joined the coterie of people who were praying and visiting him. Joe’s daughter, Hailey, who came with an uncle to visit her dad, asked the inevitable question, “Is he going to live?” As the days melted into weeks, the prognosis turned worse. Joe’s condition looked hopeless.

By the end of January 2013, the doctors gave up hope. Holding a meeting with Joe’s mother, they told her that her son would probably not live, and if he did, he would be in a vegetative state. They advised her to authorize removing Joe from life support.

As Donna agonized over the dilemma, she shared the situation with a friend of Joe’s who, in turn, took his condition to some friends and asked them to pray. The leader of this group took Joe’s plight to the entire church, and then an astounding thing happened. A message from the spiritual realm came to the leader. He told Joe’s friend that he had been told in his spirit that Joe should not be taken off life support. The friend took this message back to Joe’s mother, “Don’t pull the plug,” he said.

The doctors were adamant in their recommendation. They insisted that Joe had little chance of surviving, and even if he did, he would be no more than a vegetable. Donna, however, was just as firm.

Following the advice she had been given, she refused to pull the plug. A few days later, she was affirmed in her decision. Joe suddenly emerged from the coma breathing on his own. They sent him to Community Subacute & Transitional Care Center, which Joe describes as a “place where the hospital sends people to die.” It soon became obvious, however, that Joe was not going to die; he was getting better, so they sent him home.

Joe had received two miracles from Yahweh. He had been delivered from drugs, and he had been saved from his life threatening brain injury. There was, however, one thing left to do. The plates that had been removed from his skull had to be replaced. Once again the Almighty was called upon, and on May 28, 2013, the surgery was performed successfully.

Today Joe is vibrant, healthy, and alive. He spends many hours each week in JMAC (Joint Military Assistance Command), a ministry that provides food, provisions, and spiritual help to needy individuals.

When asked to reflect on the journey he has travelled, Joe writes, “the devil is a defeated foe, thanks be to Yahshua. Shalom Shalom.”