Healed dog: medicine or miracle?
Published: March 22, 2007
You could say it was the result of good medical care that helped a dog named Max survive after being diagnosed with kidney failure.
But ask the children in Andrea Carroll’s third-grade classroom at St. Joseph School of All Saints Parish and they will tell you it’s the power of prayer.
Max, an 11-year-old Labrador retriever and Akita mix, was diagnosed in October with kidney failure and Carroll was told by a veterinarian her dog had “just a few weeks to live.”
She told her students about Max’s plight and they put his name on a prayer board, a section of a classroom wall that is covered with dozens of wishes, prayers and good intentions for pets, relatives, and for victims of disasters.
Four months later | or almost 2<1/2> dog years later | Max is doing well. His latest exam shows he is holding his own with the help of medication and daily intravenous treatments.
“I thought Max was going to die so I prayed every night for him,” said 8-year-old Elizabeth Duchemin. “The spirit of God can cure people and pets. God puts all his might into prayers.”
“I think it was a miracle,” said 9-year-old student Jason Hickey. “Prayers can be really powerful.”
The Rev. Mark Ballard of All Saints Church said there is more to prayer than meets the eye and that research shows that people who pray recover more quickly from illnesses than people who do not.
“People who are prayed for also do better,” Ballard said. “Just ask any priest and they will tell you of the power of prayer.”
Ballard said he would not go so far as to call Max’s recovery a miracle, but he did say that it seemed “miraculous.”
“It’s always a good idea to get the best doctor you can, but also take it to the great doctor | to Jesus,” he said. “Perhaps this was meant as a sign to teach children about the power of prayer.”
Carroll brought Max to school yesterday and her students could not wait to give him hugs as he licked their faces | almost as if he was thanking them for their efforts.
“I feel so grateful that my students held him in their prayers,” Carroll said. “I feel they were a big influence in Max getting better.”
Carroll, 28, has had Max for about eight years, since she literally bumped into him one evening while driving in Salem, Mass. She was approaching a stoplight and Max stepped into the path of her car.
“I bumped him but he wasn’t hurt badly,” Carroll said. “I brought him to a veterinarian and found out that he’d been abandoned by his owner. He’s been with me ever since.”
Because there is little room in the Lowell condominium Andrea and her husband, Gregory, live in, Max now stays with Andrea’s parents in Lawrence.
Up on the classroom prayer board, there are others asking for prayers. Student Zachary Kryzynski’s prayer is for his dog Jake, who he says is now in heaven. Nicole Elena Marquis added her grandmother’s name to the board and the class prayed for her recovery from surgery.
Next to the prayer board is a folder filled with answered prayers.
“We pray every morning for a few minutes,” said 9-year-old student Nina Frasca. “Sometimes prayers can be very powerful. But sometimes it takes time for them to work.”
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