Teen Credits ‘Hand of God’ for Miraculous Recovery From Coma

Nearly four years ago doctors thought that Taylor Hale had little chance of surviving her traumatic brain injury. Today the 17-year-old is healed, happy, and heading to her high school graduation, and she credits it all to divine intervention. (Photo: Stacy Henningsen/Facebook)

It was a hellish accident that landed Taylor Hale in the hospital fighting for her life in 2011. And it was heavenly intervention via the “hand of God” that the 17-year-old’s family says helped her emerge.

“God can save people,“ the Waukee, Iowa teen told KREM 2 news at May 12 press conference about her incredible recovery. "I’m always thankful to all the doctors and nurses and therapists who helped me get better, but God did most of the saving."

STORY: What Is Faith Healing? 

It’s been heavy lifting all around to get Hale back to health following the traumatic brain injury that she sustained falling off the hood of a friend’s car and hitting her head on the pavement about four years ago. Less than a week after she was rushed into the hospital and put into a medically induced coma, Hale experienced a brain hemorrhage.

STORY: Woman Wakes From Coma, Gives Birth to Healthy Girl

Doctors told her parents, Stacy Henningsen and Chuck Hale, that their daughter was brain dead and they would need to take her off of life support, according to KREM. (Henningsen and Hale didn’t immediately respond to Yahoo Parenting’s requests for comment). Family friend and chiropractor Jeff Stickel visited Hale in the hospital that same day and offered to pray for her. He said a few words and then departed. Doctors eventually turned off Hale’s life support.

But the high school student didn’t die. Instead she woke up from her coma. “It was the hand of God at work,” says Hale’s father. “That’s the only thing that can explain it."

Nearly all doctors in a 1996 American Academy of Family Physicians survey “believe there is an important relationship between the spirit and the flesh,” according to CNN, which also reports that the results show “family doctors overwhelmingly believe that religious faith can help patients heal.”

Hale and her family believe. And they’re not alone. A 2011 Fox News poll found that 77 percent of voters “believe prayers can help someone heal from an injury or illness,” while 20 percent do not and 3 percent say they’re “unsure.”

Agree or not, Hale’s recovery is nothing short of miraculous. After her shocking wake-up, the then-Freshman began physical rehab, learned to walk again, and studied overtime to catch up on all of the schoolwork that she missed while in the hospital.

Not that any of it was easy. She lost her sense of smell and much of her long-term memory due to her injuries. "I don’t remember my childhood,” she says. “I look at my pictures, and I recognize that’s me, but I don’t remember anything.” But after steady work to recover her body and her lessons, Hale is set to graduate with her class this month and aspires to go to college then begin a career as an event planner.

“I’m not a person who is going to quit because I can’t do something,” she says. “I don’t give up."

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