Sick Baby Boy Encounters the Miraculous

Casey explained how her newborn son "couldn't hold anything down from the first time we tried to feed him."

Hunter was only two days old when his parents, Jake and Casey, noticed a problem.

"He could only eat about a half-ounce of formula at a time instead of the normal two ounces," explained Casey. "Any more than that and he would spit everything back up or any pressure on his stomach would make him spit back up."

Hunter’s doctor ordered x-rays.

Jake said, "There was just a mass that took up about two-thirds of his stomach.  They actually showed us where it was and you could feel it.  And that was probably the most heartbreaking part of it, is actually being able to feel the mass in his stomach that’s not letting him eat."

The doctors told them it was life-threatening and he needed to be treated immediately.  

Casey explained that the doctor said, "Hunter cannot live with this mass and we need to send him to Denver to take it out, because he can't eat enough to live with it."

Holding back tears, Jake said, "I remember both my wife and I were just very scared, very worried."

"I was blown away," Casey anxiously said.  "I didn't know what to think, I didn't know what to say.  You don't expect to see that in your baby that's two days old."

Hunter was airlifted to the Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children in Denver, five-and-a-half-hours away.  Jake and Casey called for prayer, and from there, it spread.

Casey said, "My brother, Morgan, got on Facebook and put this prayer request out on Facebook.  And within hours he had people all over the country and all over the world, he had friends in Australia and New Zealand and England, all his friends and their churches, were praying for Hunter.  The circle of prayers within hours was overwhelming."

Jake’s mother, Norleen, called CBN’s prayer center.

Norleen said, "I couldn’t find the words myself to pray.  It was just that feeling of needing somebody that, since I couldn’t put it into words, that I knew at the end of that phone line that she could.  And she did.  And that’s what I needed."

Jake remembers the long drive to Denver.  "I was just incredibly worried.  I think I spent most of the trip praying for Hunter."

In Denver, doctors conducted tests and a 3-D ultrasound confirmed the results.

Jake said, "The best prognosis we were looking at was him leaving in two months, but we should probably plan for him to be there at least six months."

The evening before Hunter’s surgery, Casey was feeding her son.

"I was in the room by myself and I fed Hunter and he drank the whole two-ounce bottle, and he was perfectly fine," explained Casey.  "At that time, I was cautiously optimistic, because I didn't want to get my hopes up, but something changed."

The next morning, doctors ordered another MRI to get a last look before surgery.

Casey said, "A while later, the doctor came in and she had a strange look on her face, which scared me to death, it's like something happened, you know, and it probably is not good. But she came in and she said, 'Okay, I have news for you.'  She said, 'We just got done with the MRI and I don't know what they saw, but it's not there now.'"  

Medical records confirm the mass doctors detected on the twelfth was gone the next day.

Jake said, "They couldn’t explain it and they didn’t really attempt to explain it.  I just knew he’d been healed.  I knew the Lord healed him.  I remember looking at Casey and we just broke down and both started crying."

Today, Hunter is a busy, healthy toddler.  Jake and Casey are grateful for his healing and the power of prayer.

"There were thousands of people praying for hunter," said Casey. "And every single one of those prayers mattered.  It's the kind of relationship the Lord wants with us, is we can ask Him anything.  Come boldly before the throne of God."