{"id":62096,"date":"2015-04-08T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-04-08T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"\/news\/?p=62096"},"modified":"2015-04-07T19:19:07","modified_gmt":"2015-04-07T23:19:07","slug":"miracle-baby-expected-to-die-at-birth-turns-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/miracle-baby-expected-to-die-at-birth-turns-20\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Miracle&#8217; baby expected to die at birth turns 20"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p>Derek and Annette George were happily expecting the arrival of their baby boy when doctors gave them a grim diagnosis: their son had hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a condition in which half of the heart doesn\u2019t function. They were advised to abort their preborn son, but the couple refused.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFaith, number one, made us say no,\u201d Annette George told Tamron Hall and Willie Geist on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.today.com\/parents\/can-prayer-heal-parents-credit-faith-sons-miracle-recovery-2D80575747\">the TODAY show<\/a>. \u201cThe only option that we foresaw with our faith was if our child only had nine months to live, then we were going to give him nine months in the womb and let God decide once the child was born.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Doctors told the couple to expect that their son would die at birth, but Derek George told TODAY that an angel visited them and told them that everything would\u00a0be okay. Their son, John Paul George, not only survived his birth, but had three heart surgeries during his first three years of life. He would also endure brain surgery, along with other medical setbacks that could have\u00a0caused\u00a0him to give up. Instead, the family remained positive and hopeful through the health struggles, praying and remaining close to God through it all.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" size-full wp-image-62111 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/www.liveactionnews.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/9780764825453-1.jpg\" alt=\"9780764825453 (1)\" width=\"259\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/9780764825453-1.jpg 259w, https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/9780764825453-1-194x300.jpg 194w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 259px) 100vw, 259px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Now 20 years old, John Paul George attends community college, and though his small stature causes people to think he is much younger, he doesn\u2019t let it bother him. He is considering joining the priesthood after graduation in order to thank God for all that He has done for him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI just basically try to thank God for saving my life,\u201d George told TODAY. \u201cIf it wasn\u2019t for God, I would not be here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The George family credits the miracle to the power of prayer, and has written a book about their experiences called, &#8220;Heart of A Lion: A Story of God\u2019s Grace and a Family\u2019s Hope.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe want to tell others that, when you\u2019re facing a difficult situation, there is always hope,\u201d said Annette George. \u201cDon\u2019t give up. All things are possible with God.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Harold Koenig appeared with the family on the TODAY Show. As the\u00a0director for spirituality, theology and health at Duke University, he is working to get doctors to believe in the power of prayer. Koenig\u00a0told TODAY that prayer gives people hope, meaning and purpose, and helps to reduce depression and anxiety.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cReligion and God seems to make a real difference in people\u2019s lives,\u201dKoenig said.\u00a0\u201cThere\u2019s just no question about it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Prayer certainly seems to have made a remarkable difference to the family. John Paul George has a positive, upbeat spirit, and he refuses to let his health conditions hold him back, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.prnewswire.com\/news-releases\/parents-credit-prayers-for-sons-miraculous-survival-with-a-half-functioning-heart-300058086.html\">saying<\/a> that he may not be able to change who he is, but he can change the world as he is.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s a miracle,\u201d Derek George told TODAY. \u201cTwenty years later, what else can I say? It\u2019s black and white.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Derek and Annette George were happily expecting the arrival of their baby boy when doctors gave them a grim diagnosis: their son had hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a condition in which half of the heart doesn\u2019t function. They were advised to abort their preborn son, but the couple refused. \u201cFaith, number one, made us say [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":62113,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[3531,3529,3530],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>&#039;Miracle&#039; baby expected to die at birth turns 20 - Live Action News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/miracle-baby-expected-to-die-at-birth-turns-20\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"&#039;Miracle&#039; baby expected to die at birth turns 20 - Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Derek and Annette George were happily expecting the arrival of their baby boy when doctors gave them a grim diagnosis: their son had hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a condition in which half of the heart doesn\u2019t function. They were advised to abort their preborn son, but the couple refused. \u201cFaith, number one, made us say [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/miracle-baby-expected-to-die-at-birth-turns-20\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-04-08T13:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-04-07T23:19:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Screen-shot-2015-04-07-at-4.06.03-PM1.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"700\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nancy Flanders\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Nancy Flanders\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/miracle-baby-expected-to-die-at-birth-turns-20\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/miracle-baby-expected-to-die-at-birth-turns-20\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Nancy Flanders\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/d61ca3dd1aacf12635bdf71d75c328ef\"},\"headline\":\"&#8216;Miracle&#8217; baby expected to die at birth turns 20\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-04-08T13:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-04-07T23:19:07+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/miracle-baby-expected-to-die-at-birth-turns-20\/\"},\"wordCount\":497,\"commentCount\":3,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Heart of a Lion\",\"hypoplastic left heart syndrome\",\"John Paul George\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Issues\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/miracle-baby-expected-to-die-at-birth-turns-20\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/miracle-baby-expected-to-die-at-birth-turns-20\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/miracle-baby-expected-to-die-at-birth-turns-20\/\",\"name\":\"'Miracle' baby expected to die at birth turns 20 - Live Action News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-04-08T13:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-04-07T23:19:07+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/miracle-baby-expected-to-die-at-birth-turns-20\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/miracle-baby-expected-to-die-at-birth-turns-20\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/miracle-baby-expected-to-die-at-birth-turns-20\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"&#8216;Miracle&#8217; baby expected to die at birth turns 20\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Live Action News\",\"description\":\"Covering Human Rights, Abortion, &amp; Pro-Life Issues\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Live Action\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png\",\"width\":701,\"height\":710,\"caption\":\"Live Action\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/liveaction\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/liveactionorg\/\",\"https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/LiveActionFilms\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/LiveActionFilms\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/d61ca3dd1aacf12635bdf71d75c328ef\",\"name\":\"Nancy Flanders\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dee54060bdc22fdfbf36d946b3026cca?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dee54060bdc22fdfbf36d946b3026cca?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Nancy Flanders\"},\"description\":\"Nancy Flanders is Associate Editor for Live Action News. She has 25 years of experience writing and editing. For more than a decade, she has focused her work on pro-life issues through human interest stories and political issues regarding abortion and physician-assisted death as well as research articles and op-eds dismantling the lies of the pro-abortion, pro-death agenda. Her work has appeared in Catholic Digest, Pregnancy Help News, and a variety of other publications.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/author\/nancy\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"'Miracle' baby expected to die at birth turns 20 - Live Action News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/miracle-baby-expected-to-die-at-birth-turns-20\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"'Miracle' baby expected to die at birth turns 20 - Live Action News","og_description":"Derek and Annette George were happily expecting the arrival of their baby boy when doctors gave them a grim diagnosis: their son had hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a condition in which half of the heart doesn\u2019t function. They were advised to abort their preborn son, but the couple refused. \u201cFaith, number one, made us say [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/miracle-baby-expected-to-die-at-birth-turns-20\/","og_site_name":"Live Action News","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction","article_published_time":"2015-04-08T13:00:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-04-07T23:19:07+00:00","og_image":[{"width":700,"height":400,"url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Screen-shot-2015-04-07-at-4.06.03-PM1.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Nancy Flanders","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@liveaction","twitter_site":"@liveaction","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Nancy Flanders","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/miracle-baby-expected-to-die-at-birth-turns-20\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/miracle-baby-expected-to-die-at-birth-turns-20\/"},"author":{"name":"Nancy Flanders","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/d61ca3dd1aacf12635bdf71d75c328ef"},"headline":"&#8216;Miracle&#8217; baby expected to die at birth turns 20","datePublished":"2015-04-08T13:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2015-04-07T23:19:07+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/miracle-baby-expected-to-die-at-birth-turns-20\/"},"wordCount":497,"commentCount":3,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization"},"keywords":["Heart of a Lion","hypoplastic left heart syndrome","John Paul George"],"articleSection":["Issues"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/miracle-baby-expected-to-die-at-birth-turns-20\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/miracle-baby-expected-to-die-at-birth-turns-20\/","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/miracle-baby-expected-to-die-at-birth-turns-20\/","name":"'Miracle' baby expected to die at birth turns 20 - Live Action News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-04-08T13:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2015-04-07T23:19:07+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/miracle-baby-expected-to-die-at-birth-turns-20\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/miracle-baby-expected-to-die-at-birth-turns-20\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/miracle-baby-expected-to-die-at-birth-turns-20\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"&#8216;Miracle&#8217; baby expected to die at birth turns 20"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/","name":"Live Action News","description":"Covering Human Rights, Abortion, &amp; Pro-Life Issues","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization","name":"Live Action","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png","width":701,"height":710,"caption":"Live Action"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction","https:\/\/twitter.com\/liveaction","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/liveactionorg\/","https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/LiveActionFilms\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/LiveActionFilms"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/d61ca3dd1aacf12635bdf71d75c328ef","name":"Nancy Flanders","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dee54060bdc22fdfbf36d946b3026cca?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dee54060bdc22fdfbf36d946b3026cca?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Nancy Flanders"},"description":"Nancy Flanders is Associate Editor for Live Action News. She has 25 years of experience writing and editing. For more than a decade, she has focused her work on pro-life issues through human interest stories and political issues regarding abortion and physician-assisted death as well as research articles and op-eds dismantling the lies of the pro-abortion, pro-death agenda. Her work has appeared in Catholic Digest, Pregnancy Help News, and a variety of other publications.","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/author\/nancy\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62096"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62096"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62096\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62109,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62096\/revisions\/62109"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}