When normal efforts to resuscitate the baby failed, a former volunteer firefighter seminarian baptized the baby, and she began to cry.
On October 24, in Ciudad del Este, a city in Paraguay, responders to the emergency call received a phone call about a one-month-old infant in distress. The ambulance was driven by a group of three firefighters, including Jorge Corvalan, a former seminarian.
Corvalan told Aleteia that when they arrived, the baby was in the arms of her mother, a 13-year-old local girl begging on the street. The newborn's vital signs are almost gone.
“The baby lies between life and death,” Corvalan said. We put him in an ambulance and took him to the city trauma center. Along the way, we tried to resuscitate the baby but we were unsuccessful.”
When they arrived at the hospital, the fireman asked the nurse to bring him water so he could baptize the baby.
“In an emergency, anyone can be baptized,” Corvalan said. I thought it was time to put him in God's hands, and I did."
The fireman said that after reciting the words of the sacrament: "I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." The baby's vital signs begin to recover. As the city firefighters' Facebook page posted, Corvalan told Aleteia: "In front of our eyes she reacted in a miraculous and unbelievable way. When I put her back on the stretcher, she cried. That's a very encouraging sign in these circumstances." The baby was immediately taken to the Pediatric Emergency Department of the hospital.
Corvalan then returned to the hospital for a long time, the doctors told him that the baby's health was better. Whether it was a miracle or not, Corvalan and his colleagues were God's collaborators in saving that baby's life.
The post on the firefighter's Facebook page concluded: "It may be hard to believe or it was just a fluke, but what we're sure and happy about is that today's baby's recovery is a heartbreaking and heartwarming story. most emotional of our agency.”
Teresa Dung Hanh
(WHD November 23, 2019/ Aleteia)