“The restoration of Mary Ann Franco’s vision is a true miracle. I don’t have a scientific explanation for it.”
You don’t expect those words to come from a neurosurgeon. But according to Dr. John Ashfar of Stuart, Florida, what he witnessed at Martin Memorial hospital was something beyond what his medical training taught him to expect.
The story was unearthed by ABC News affiliate WPBF of West Palm Beach. Twenty years ago, Mary Ann survived a car accident, but her injuries left her legally blind. Until recently, when she fell in her Okeechobee home and injured her spine.
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Mary Ann underwent surgery at the hospital to fix the damage… but the surgeon fixed more than he knew. She awoke and asked a nurse for pain medication—and realized she could actually see the nurse!
Doctors have offered plausible theories for how she could have regained her sight from a totally unrelated surgery, but none of them explain another oddity—before the accident, Mary Ann was colorblind. Now she’s not.
She’s seen her grandchildren for the first time, and her beloved cat and dog. She’s experiencing life anew, a gift she says, that can only be described as an “act of God.”
“In the mornings I get up and I look out and the sun is coming through the trees and the beams are coming down,” Mary Ann told WPBF. “Oh God, it’s so wonderful to see.”
One of our Guideposts readers on Facebook reminded us of another story of an accident that provided unexpected healing. In a classic Christmastime true story from the early ’80s, a partially-deaf child ran into an electric fence and was fortunate to survive. As the boy’s mother told us, what happened next was “strange and wonderful,” a gift her family would never forget. You can check it out here: An Exchange of Gifts.
Has an accident provided unexpected healing for you? Has a news story caught your eye that would be perfect to share in Mysterious Ways? Send your stories and discoveries to us!
