The year was 1983. Kalwant Kour and her husband, Paul, had just rushed their three-year-old daughter, Joanna, to the hospital due to a prolonged asthma attack. 

Doctors gave Joanna aminophylline, a medication meant to relax the lung’s air passages, but the little girl began vomiting and experiencing seizures instead. They had not known that she was allergic to the drug.

As doctors declared the situation an emergency and cordoned off the area, Kalwant watched helplessly as her daughter’s tiny frame thrashed about on the hospital bed.

Then a mother’s worst nightmare happened.

Joanna slipped into a coma. 

Awake, but not the same

“It’s almost like she’s brain dead,” doctors told Kalwant sombrely. 

Joanna’s allergic reaction to the aminophylline had caused significant brain damage, which doctors said would result in lifelong intellectual and physical impairments. They also could not predict how long Joanna would remain comatose.

Little Joanna had been a bubbly three-year-old before the tragedy struck.

After five agonising days, Joanna woke up from her coma. But she could not respond when her parents called her name and did not seem to recognise anyone. She also could not speak.

Her condition continued to deteriorate after she was discharged from the hospital. Even though doctors prescribed Joanna medication to control her seizures, she still suffered attacks from 10 to 14 times a day.

“She would climb things but get thrown off when her body convulsed and collapsed to the floor due to seizures, causing her to bruise herself and knock out all her baby teeth. She would also writhe uncontrollably till I could only see the whites of her eyes,” Kalwant recalled.

Her eyes brimming with tears, she recalled: “I was so scared and heartbroken. I was powerless.”

Seeking a higher power

Desperate for Joanna to get well, Kalwant consulted friends from various religions in the hope of finding a higher power that could bring relief to her daughter’s suffering.

However, despite going through nearly $30,000 worth of “healing” rituals and ceremonies, including the chanting of long prayers and drenching themselves in water at 2am, Joanna’s condition remained unchanged.

Hearing about Kalwant’s despair, one of her friends, Teong Hoon, a Christian, invited her and her husband to take Joanna to a Christian healing rally.

Before Joanna met with this tragedy, Teong Hoon had been praying for Kalwant’s salvation.

When Joanna was in a coma at the hospital, Teong Hoon’s number had flashed across Kalwant’s mind, prompting her to call him up to ask for prayer.

Teong Hoon had rushed to the hospital with another Christian friend to pray for Joanna, and had continued to visit and pray for the little girl even after she was discharged.

While Kalwant was open to his invitation to attend a healing rally, she did not know if her husband, who was opposed to Christianity, would agree.

“Paul was already angry that Teong Hoon kept praying for Joanna. He even threw the Bible given by Teong Hoon under the bed after he left. I was unsure whether he would even consider giving Jesus a try,” Kalwant said.

Little did she expect her husband to change his mind.

“Okay fine,” he relented. “We’ve tried everything and nothing has worked. Let’s try Jesus.”

Could it be me?

At the healing rally, the auditorium was packed. There was a huge gathering of the physically, mentally and emotionally sick and broken. 

Kalwant’s heart twinged at the sight. “What if there isn’t enough ‘healing power’ to go around?” she wondered anxiously.

During the preacher’s sharing, he suddenly stopped midway before announcing to the crowd: “There is a woman here whose child is having a brain problem. Can you come up, please? The Lord wants to heal your child.”

Kalwant froze. Could it be her?

Then again, maybe someone else in the audience had brain issues. She also doubted that God would bother healing someone who did not believe in Him.

So she did not respond. And neither did anyone else.

The preacher repeated the call. This time, Joanna erupted into a seizure. Kalwant and Paul could think of nothing else but to carry Joanna outside of the auditorium to recover. 

By the time they returned, the preacher’s final call had passed. Kalwant regretted that she had not had the courage to respond.

As the rally drew to a close, the preacher called for those in need of healing to come forward to receive prayer. Kalwant was determined not to miss the opportunity this time.

She rushed to join the queue, and the preacher’s eyes widened upon seeing Joanna.

“Why didn’t you come up?” he asked Kalwant. “I gave three calls. The anointing was so strong.”

He laid hands on Joanna and prayed for her.

Miracle after miracle

The next day, Joanna’s seizures ceased completely. 

Kalwant and Paul were puzzled. Did the medication finally start working? Or was it the Christian God who had healed her?

Paul hardly dared to consider the latter option … until he heard an audible voice.

“Why do you still not believe?”

Surprised, Paul looked up and realised that there was no one else in the room. In that moment, he knew in his heart that the voice was God’s, and it was He who had healed Joanna.

Throwing the costly medication into the sink, Paul rushed to Kalwant to tell her about what had just happened. As they looked at each other, tears streamed down their face. God is real and He had chosen to heal their daughter.

When Joanna’s seizures stopped and she regained her speech, contrary to what doctors had predicted, Paul and Kalwant could not deny that it was God’s hand at work.

But God was not done with Joanna yet.

A few months later, Kalwant was reaching for a box of biscuits on the top shelf when a small voice piped up from beside her: “I want biscuits, Mummy.”

Floored, Kalwant looked in disbelief at her girl who had not uttered a word since she woke up from her coma.

“Paul! Paul! You will never believe this. Our Joanna just spoke!” Kalwant cried out with joy.

Multiple doctors had told the couple that their daughter would never speak again. The restoration of her speech and the cessation of her seizures were beyond anything they could hope for.

Paul and Kalwant knew it was Jesus’ hand at work.

“Tell Teong Hoon,” Kalwant told her husband. “We have to get baptised right away.”

Glory and goodness

The family was baptised at Toa Payoh Methodist Church where they worshipped for a few years. They now attend Elim Church.

“I continue to claim Proverbs 3:5-6, trusting in and leaning on God for whatever comes my way,” Kalwant, now 71, told Salt&Light.

Today, although Joanna is still unable to read and write, God has blessed her with the gift of memorising Scripture verses, her mother said, adding that her daughter’s life – and joy – continues to testify to God’s healing power. 

“Looking back, I now understand that God’s love for us is so great,” Kalwant said. “Even when we didn’t believe in Him, He still showed us His love.”

The couple continue to believe that Joanna’s healing serves a bigger purpose: To show the world that their God is real, so that others may come to believe in His glory and goodness.

DISCLAIMER: This story is a personal reflection. Always seek the guidance of your pastor and/or doctor or other qualified health professional with any question you may have regarding your health or medical condition.

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