Grace Baptist Church in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, welcomed pastor Ryan Marlow home in a celebration after doctors erroneously declared him brain-dead and almost harvested his organs.
“Yesterday was such a beautiful day. Hundreds of people came by to show love and support and we are just humbled. Many dear friends and many we had never met in person, but the Lord makes us brothers and sisters in Him,” Marlow’s wife, Meghan, said Sunday on a Facebook page called Ryan’s Recovery.
“Ryan was just shocked at all the love that was shown. For the last six months, I’ve been able to see all the messages and the comments and the support and the prayers. But he has seen just glimpses here and there, which is what made yesterday that much more amazing. For three hours Ryan waved, smiled and interacted with hundreds of people. I’m so proud of him. I know he was exhausted,” she added.
According to The Christian Post, Marlow, 37, was hospitalized in August 2022 for a listeria infection that turned into a brain injury. In late August 2022, Meghan said in a Facebook Live video that doctors told her Marlow was clinically deceased.
“They put the time of his death on his chart. That was it. I was called into a room and told that my husband was an organ donor and that we were gonna begin the process of finding matches for his organs. So that process began, he was on life support, and they told me he would remain on life support until they found all of the donors,” she said.
Two days later, a doctor called to tell her that Marlow was not brain-dead, but in a coma, although he wouldn’t survive without life support.
The following day, doctors had scheduled the harvesting of his organs, but when Meghan visited him and showed him videos of his three children singing, Marlow moved his feet.
“I told Ryan all the things that I wanted to tell him,” she said. “That I loved him, people were taking care of me, that God was gonna make sure our babies were taken care of, and it was gonna be alright. And at the very end, I tell him, ‘If you’re inside of there and you can hear me, I need you to fight. I need you to fight like crazy … “Long story short, he’s not brain dead, my friends. The doctor would not even do the brain death test because they said that there is brain activity.”
Earlier this month, Ryan was allowed to go home.
“Thank you all for praying and fighting along with us!!” Meghan wrote in a Facebook post.
Photo courtesy: ©Getty Images/Tonefotografia
Amanda Casanova is a writer living in Dallas, Texas. She has covered news for ChristianHeadlines.com since 2014. She has also contributed to The Houston Chronicle, U.S. News and World Report and IBelieve.com. She blogs at The Migraine Runner.