This photo shows an "angel" of light Chelsea's mother saw at Presbyterian Hospital in November.
Photo captures image of an 'angel' in Charlotte
hospital
In dark time, mom of Mint Hill teen sees light of hope
By Jane Duckwall -Special Correspondent to the Charlotte Observer
When Chelsea Banton was born five weeks prematurely, doctors predicted she
had 36 hours to live.
Proving them wrong was the first miracle for Chelsea, now an IndependenceHigh School freshman.
"She spent the first four months in a neonatal intensive care unit," recalls
her mother, Colleen Banton of Mint Hill.
Before Chelsea was 2, she was admitted to the hospital for pneumonia, the
first of several dangerous run-ins with the illness that have made her a
familiar face in Presbyterian's pediatric intensive care unit.
Among other health problems in her medical history: hydrocephalus, requiring
a shunt in her skull and, later, several shunt revisions; life-threatening
viruses; and, this past July, fluid retention that required more than a week's
hospitalization and three liters of liquid to be drawn from her body.
Prayer has helped sustain the whole family.
"We had been praying every day, my oldest daughter and I and Chelsea,"
Colleen Banton said. "...Praying for a miracle."
That miracle, Colleen believes, came Nov. 5 - seven weeks after Chelsea
was admitted to the hospital for pneumonia.
What originally seemed like a bad cold nearly killed her.
"She was on life-support from the moment she got there," her mother said.
That was Sept. 21. Over the next six weeks in the hospital, Chelsea faced
one threat after another: pneumonia in her left lung, then her right lung, then
sepsis, blood clots, staph infections, E. coli, a collapsed lung and feeding
problems.
In late October, doctors met with the family to discuss "a plan of action,"
Colleen said. One of the decisions she had to make was whether she would take Chelsea
off the ventilator. Earlier, doctors had removed Chelsea
from the ventilator several times, but had replaced it when the struggle to
breathe became too difficult for the teen.
But a family meeting Oct. 31 was a turning point.
"At that point, the family... agreed that when she did come off the ventilator
again, (they) weren't putting it back in," Colleen said. "Whatever happened,
would happen."
On Saturday, Nov. 1, "they took her off the ventilator and she did good,"
her mother said. "She was breathing on her own."
The next day, "her stats went down," and doctors put her in an oxygen mask.
But over the next few days, Colleen noticed her daughter "wasn't getting
better. Things were kind of lingering."
And Chelsea, who had been having anxiety attacks and crying throughout her
hospital stay, was having more of them.
"I said, 'She's been through enough,'" Colleen remembers. "I said, 'Can we
just take her mask off? She's been through enough.'
"I wanted to do what the Lord wanted me to do. And I really felt like I've
had her for 14 years, and if it's time for her to go to heaven, then I know
she'll be healed."
The mask didn't come off immediately, though. They waited until family
members had a chance to come to see Chelsea - perhaps for the last time.
On the afternoon of Nov. 5, as family and friends prayed about the decision,
a nurse practitioner called Colleen's attention to a monitor showing the door
to the pediatric intensive care unit.
"On the monitor, there was this bright light," Colleen recalls. "And I
looked at it and I said, 'Oh my goodness! It looks like an angel!"
Colleen pointed her digital camera at the monitor to take a photo of the
image, but the "first picture wouldn't take."
She tried again and succeeded. The image gave her a peace that stayed with
her when hospital staff removed Chelsea's
oxygen mask.
And then, "when they took the mask off of her, her stats went as high as
they've ever been.
"Her color was good, and the doctors and nurses were amazed," Colleen said. "The nurse practitioner who saw the image in the monitor said, 'I've worked
here 15 years, and I've never seen anything like it.'"
Chelsea was removed from
intensive care on Nov. 14 and went home three days later.
Her mother believes it was a miracle -attended by a very real angel bathed
in light at the door to the pediatric intensive care unit.
"What was so ironic... is it was a rainy day," Colleen said. "It had been
overcast all day. And the sun only came out at that point."
To those who doubt her story and photograph, Colleen Banton says: "If they
doubt it, that's fine. ... But I know what I saw, and the picture's untouched. I
didn't make it up. That's just something that I believe.
"I believe that more people have changed since this happened. I know I have.
I look at things differently than I used to - because I know God is in
control."
On Christmas Day, Chelsea will
turn 15 - another miracle considering all of the medical trials she's faced,
according to her mother.
"I'm learning," Colleen Banton said, "that every day she's alive is a
miracle."
Colleen Banton (left) with daughters Chelsea (center) and Kaylee on Friday.
HERE'S SOMETHING AMAZING
Suddenly the shoreline north of Sydney was transformed into the Cappuccino Coast. Foam swallowed an entire beach and half the nearby buildings, including the local lifeguards' centre, in a freak display of nature at Yamba in New South Wales.
One minute a group of teenage sufers were waiting to catch a wave, the next they were swallowed up in a giant bubble bath. The foam was so light that they could puff it out of their hands and watch it float away.
Boy in the bubble bath: Tom Woods, 12, emerges from the clouds of foam after deciding that surfing was not an option. It stretched for 30 miles out into the Pacific in a phenomenon not seen at the beach for more than three decades. Scientists explain that the foam is created by impurities in the ocean, such as salts, chemicals, dead plants, decomposed fish and excretions from seaweed. All are churned up together by powerful currents which cause the water to form bubbles. These bubbles stick to each other as they are carried below the surface by the current towards the shore. As a wave starts to form on the surface, the motion of the water causes the bubbles to swirl upwards and, massed together, they become foam. The foam 'surfs' towards shore until the wave 'crashes', tossing the foam into the air.
Whitewash: The foam was so thick it came all the way up to the surf club. 'It's the same effect you get when you whip up a milk shake in a blender,' explains a marine expert. 'The more powerful the swirl, the more foam you create on the surface and the lighter it becomes.' In this case, storms off the New South Wales Coast and further north off Queensland had created a huge disturbance in th e ocean, hitting a stretch of water where there was a particularly high amount of the substances which form into bubbles. As for 12-year-old beachgoer Tom Woods, who has been surfing since he was two, riding a wave was out of the question. 'Me and my mates just spent the afternoon leaping about in that stuff,' he said. 'It was quite cool to touch and it was really weird. It was like clouds of air - you could hardly feel it.'
Children play among all the foam which was been whipped up by cyclonic conditions.
The following pictures are of a moose That went through a car's windshield And out the rear window recently Near South River, Ontario.
This VERY lucky woman driver ended up with just a broken wrist. However, she needed a good bath. When you view the pictures you will wonder how this woman managed to survive a moose going through her entire car. God must have had His Angels protecting this woman in this wonderful end time miracle!
