How I Held a Miracle in My Hands by Dr. John Demartini

Let me share an incredible story of a patient whom I will never forget. When he was thirteen years old, he was playing at the top of the stairs in his apartment complex in Mexico when he fell down the stairs and broke open his skull. He had been in a coma since that time. When his parents brought him into my office, he was sixteen. His parents spoke limited English, but I learned that they had taken him to countless hospitals in Mexico and in Texas, and the verdict was always the same—incurable—brain-damaged encephalitis with decerebrate rigidity.

Being sixteen years old, he weighed less than sixty pounds and wore a diaper. His eyes were motionless, and his body appeared motionless. His parents carried him wrapped in a white sheet, like you would an infant.

This was not a simple case. I did the best I could to examine him and did an X-ray of his whole spine, which drew my attention to the fact that his skull was jammed onto the spinal cord. I thought maybe after falling down the stairs, he had landed on it and had completely compressed it. I wondered what would happen if I lifted his skull from his spine.

“I do not know if I can help your son, but I found something that I feel would be wise to do—to adjust his skull and lift it off the spine.”

His mother looked at me, and what she said changed my life. She said, “Dr. Demartini, if he lives, we rejoice. If he dies, we accept. But we have nowhere else to go. Please help us.”

With her words, she gave me permission to allow her son to live or die in my hands. I had to be willing to take that risk. So I did. I lifted his skull off his spine with a force like I had never experienced—I felt as if the universe was working through me. All of a sudden his fingers uncurled, his hands opened up, he raised his head, and his eyes opened. He began shrieking and crying like a newborn child. His whole body started moving all over the table.

We saw the power that brought life to a lifeless body. We saw that when a spine is out of alignment, it can block the expression of the power of life animating the body, the spirit, the brain, the nervous system. Every chiropractor has patients who are gifts. This teenager was one of my gifts. He further awakened in my mind and heart to love, the Gratitude Effect and the power of a single chiropractic adjustment. Several years later, this young man went on to graduate from a special educational institution.

Dr. John Demartini

A world-renowned inspirational speaker, Dr. John Demartini is a noted educator, business consultant, author and founder of The Demartini Institute. He was featured in the acclaimed book and movie The Secret, and is the author of 40 books published in over 29 different languages. Holding a doctorate of chiropractic, Dr. Demartini is a retired chiropractor, and to this day carries with fondness his early memories of enjoying the use of hands, heart and mind at chiropractic college.