Christmas miracle

When most people think of a Christmas miracle, they think of angels and a baby born in a manger. Each December, one grateful mother thinks of the miracle sixteen years ago that changed the life of her infant son.

Three months earlier, Cindy Hval’s son had been born with a congenital diaphragmatic hernia. A CDH is a hole in the diaphragm (the muscle under the lungs that is responsible for breathing) that allows organs from the abdomen to move into the chest. Three days after his birth, he underwent surgery to repair the hole in his diaphragm and then went home – with only one lung.

Doctors told Ms. Hval her son had some tissue where his left lung should have grown. They said lungs continue to grow into a child’s early teens, but if a lung did not grow he could live with one lung.

Still, like any mother, she worried, watching him breathe in his cradle, even counting his respiration rate. She became familiar with the images on her son’s chest X-rays at each visit to the doctor.

On a snowy day in late December just before Christmas, she took her son to his last post-op visit to the doctor. And that’s when she discovered that Christmas truly is all about miracles. Discover her Christmas miracle.