The nurse and the exorcism

Victoria Callahan is a supervising nurse in the intensive care unit of a local hospital. Throughout her long career in nursing, she has witnessed any number of strange occurrences, but none of them reach the level of a recent experience she had with a patient who was on life support for a severe drug overdose. The 52-year-old man had a 30-year history of drug abuse, and the doctors and nurses were not just trying to break his addiction to meth, heroin, and crack; they were making a last ditch effort to keep him alive.

The medical strategy was to sedate him and then bring him slowly to consciousness in the hope they could break the hold the drugs had on him and he could breathe on his own.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t working. For three weeks, they had been working with the man, and each time they removed the sedation, he woke up extremely agitated, aggressive, and physically combative. After a series of unsuccessful attempts, the patient would be put back on sedation. This process continued day after day with no success.

After awhile, frustration began to set in with the nursing staff, and they began to feel reluctant to have him as a patient.

One night Victoria was on duty as the charge nurse. It was her job to make the nursing assignments. Knowing how difficult the bellicose patient would be, she assigned one nurse to this man.

At the beginning of the 12-hour shift, the patient became conscious under a light sedation. He remained his combative self and attempted to kick the staff nurse. His aggression increased as he attempted to bite off his endotracheal tube (breathing tube), and began thrashing and kicking the nurse.

Victoria and the other nurse attempted to restrain his arms and upper body, hoping it would keep him from removing his breathing tube. As they continued to work with him and tried to reason with him, he resumed his attempts to kick and hit both of the women.

Finally, a physician was called in to increase the sedation to calm the patient. Then more nursing help was called. To Victoria’s surprise, however, when the doctor and the staff nurses came into the room, they turned around and walked right back out. They had encountered this man’s aggression too many times. At this point, Victoria became desperate. Nothing was working; the medical community had no answers.

Suddenly what Victoria describes as a “Holy Anger” came upon her. She began to pray to the One she knew could deliver this man. Victoria got on one side and held one leg while the other nurse held the other one. As she prayed, she heard these words, “For my Spirit is with you. Walk in the authority I have given you.” With her staff nurse standing across from her, Victoria began to have second thoughts “What is she going think of me?” At that moment, she heard the Lord say, “Who are you going to fear, man or me?” Victoria responded, “Ok, Lord, ok.” Then a powerful thing happened. Victoria’s spiritual eyes opened, and she saw that she was dealing with the forces of darkness. Her patient was being attacked by demons.

In Victoria’s words, “The Lord stood by my side and empowered me to cast demons out of this patient.” She said that the demons knew the name of Jesus. Every time she called out the demon, in the Name of Jesus, the demon manifested itself in the patient. “His (the patient) blooded-eyes appeared (to) pop out of his face. His face become bright blood red. He became more aggressive toward me.”

Then, “by authority that the Lord has given me as a child of God…the Lord had me pull these demonic spirits out of this man…” and the patient became calm and at peace and slept through the rest of the shift.

The next night, the same shift nurse that had been assigned to the man was on duty again. She approached Victoria, thanking her for praying for her patient. Then she gave her the good news. The patient that had been so violent for so long was now off life support and all medication for sedation. “He was calm and at peace — sweet and friendly to talk too.”

Victoria could hardly believe her ears. She ran to the patient’s room and stood in awe. The Lord had freed this patient from demonic possession and restored his health, but there was more for Victoria to do.

As she prayed a prayer of thanksgiving, she asked, “What is it, Lord? You have freed and restored him for a reason.” The answer came loud and as clear as the blue sky. The Lord spoke. “I want to save him.”

With her staff nurse and another nurse standing by, Victoria looked at the patient.

His eyes were completely focused on her. “Do you remember me?” she asked. With humbleness and humility, he nodded “yes.”

Victoria asked him, “Do you remember that I prayed prayed for you last night?” To her surprise, he stated, “yes.”

She then began to tell him of the goodness of God — that Jesus loved him, and that He wanted to save him and give him a second chance at life. Before they knew it, she had led the man through the salvation prayer.

Today, Victoria remains full of joy and awe as she remembers how the Lord Jesus filled her violent, belligerent, and hostile patient with His Spirit, and the glory of the Lord filled the room.