Case report of instantaneous resolution of juvenile macular degeneration blindness after proximal intercessory prayer

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Medical journal: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/explore/ ; https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1550830720300926?fbclid=IwAR0tgsnm-fRTDImK5eGZSndVW1bNzfijdyIiqF9pkZo07ywT3wHyFWfkr-Y

PDF Download: https://reader.elsevier.com/reader/sd/pii/S1550830720300926?token=DBB6B958819677CD55064A7C593A2EEF3AF9B369756C8165482D3262362A3F50139895524C29375154420B77B9399924

Abstract:

An 18-year-old female lost the majority of her central vision over the course of three months in 1959. Medical records from 1960 indicate visual acuities (VA) of less than 20/400 for both eyes corresponding to legal blindness. On fundus examination of the eye there were dense yellowish-white areas of atrophy in each fovea and the individual was diagnosed with juvenile macular degeneration (JMD). In 1971, another examination recorded her uncorrected VA as finger counting on the right and hand motion on the left. She was diagnosed with macular degeneration (MD) and declared legally blind. In 1972, having been blind for over 12 years, the individual reportedly regained her vision instantaneously after receiving proximal-intercessory-prayer (PIP). Subsequent medical records document repeated substantial improvement; including uncorrected VA of 20/100 in each eye in 1974 and corrected VAs of 20/30 to 20/40 were recorded from 2001 to 2017. To date, her eyesight has remained intact for forty-seven years.

Highlights

  1. A young woman presented with sudden bilateral vision loss and atrophy in each fovea
  2. She was diagnosed with Juvenile Macular Degeneration and was blind for 12 years
  3. After a brief proximal intercessory prayer (PIP) experience she regained her eyesight
  4. The foveal atrophy has resolved
  5. Her eyesight has remained 20/40 or better for over forty years since the PIP event

Receiving Sight after 12 years

This young woman 18 years of age (Marolyn Ford) was diagnosed with Juvenile Macular Degeneration (JMD) and lost her vision over three months in 1959. Initial reports show that her vision was 7/200 in each eye.

In 1972, after being legally blind for over a dozen years, she received proximal intercessory prayer (PIP) from her husband, which is a kind of direct contact, petitionary prayer that often lasts over fifteen minutes. They went to bed at midnight, which was later than normal for them, and he read her two Bible verses and then began to pray. Although he had never heard of a miraculous present-day healing, and he did not speak in tongues, fast or perform other common spiritual practices associated with Pentecostal or Charismatic circles, he began to pray boldly for her healing.

According to the authors of the article, “At the close of the prayer, his wife opened her eyes and saw her husband kneeling in front of her, which was her first clear visual perception after almost 13 years of blindness.”

In 1974, her visual acuity was 20/100 without correction, and then in 2001, she vision had improved to 20/40 in each eye. Except for common age-related problems, her sight has remained intact for the past 47 years.

Authors of the article entertain the possibility that the healing was due to a conversion disorder of some kind (psychosomatic condition). Yet they conclude,

“However, this is unlikely, as there was objective evidence for organic macular disease at the diagnosis, which is inconsistent with a purely psychogenic etiology. A ‘conversion disorder’ could not explain the yellowish white area of atrophy involving each fovea, nor could it explain resolution of the macular atrophy in the images obtained since the recovery of vision.”

While the authors cannot fully rule out a placebo, they conclude: “If there was a placebo effect, it is not clear how the visual acuity via be improved via placebo.” In other words, a placebo effect seems incapable of explaining the physical transformation that resulted in restored sight.

So this article tells us there are no other known cases of spontaneous recovery of a patient suffering from this kind of condition. This means that the only known case of permanent and immediate recovery of sight, from someone suffering from JMD, occurred right at the moment someone was praying for the patient to recover sight. 

Source discovered: 

See the letter to her:

She went for training of the blind. See the certificate below:

After examining her eyes her doctor was not sure how they were now able to see since the damage still looked unchanged and severe. However they do see very well. See the doctor’s report below:

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