A 14-year old St. Charles boy who spent 15 minutes under water after falling through the ice of Lake Ste. Louise has made a recovery no one can explain.
It’s a recovery so complete, our Kay Quinn spoke on-camera to young John Smith about his near-drowning, and his amazing story of survival.
Ice Miracle
Three 14-year-old boys fell through the ice on Martin Luther King Day.
When rescuers arrived, one was almost out of the water, another was holding onto the ice and one couldn’t be found.
Eighth grader John Smith is doing something doctors never believed would be possible.
“I don’t remember much about it to be honest, but I do remember the tubes,” says Smith.
He is walking and talking, here with his pastor Jason Noble by his side. And trying to make sense of how he’s not just alive, but thriving after being under water for 15 minutes.

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“After listening to what the paramedics and doctors said I’m pretty surprised at the outcome,” says John.
[…] “In my mind this is a very grim, very poor chance of survival already,” says Dr. Sutterer of the moment John came in.
Dr. Sutterer and his team performed CPR on John for 27 minutes with no success. The question was raised: how long should they continue?
“He was dead for 45 minutes,” says Dr. Sutterer.
What happened next defies explanation. Dr. Sutterer called John’s mother into the room to give her the news.
“She started praying loudly,” says Dr. Sutterer.
“I don’t remember what all I said,” recalls John’s mother, Joyce Smith. “But I remember, ‘Holy God, please send your Holy Spirit to save my son. I want my son, please save him.’ And they hadn’t been getting a pulse at that time, so all of a sudden I heard them saying, ‘We got a pulse, we got a pulse.'”
“Within a matter of a minute or two, his heart started again,” says Dr. Sutterer.
It’s an experience that’s shaken many of those in the emergency room that day. This veteran of responding to medical crisis wrote a letter about it as a way to cope.
“His heart was jump started by the Holy Spirit listening to the request of his praying mother,” reads Dr. Sutterer, from the letter he wrote.
Dr. Jeremy Garrett who oversaw John’s recovery even goes a step further. “It’s a bonafide miracle.” (read more)
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