Miracles—We often use the word to describe an event that is beyond explanation. Brigham Young described it this way: “Miracles strengthen and confirm the faith of those who love and serve God. Miracles, or these extraordinary manifestations of the power of God, are not for the unbeliever; they are to console the Saints, and to strengthen and confirm the faith of those who love, fear, and serve God, and not for outsiders” ( Discourses of Brigham Young, p. 341).

My Miracle Story

I was born in the mid 1970s to goodly parents who would eventually bare ten children. I was number two. Health issues defined my life from the moment of my birth. An acute case of jaundice precluded my parents from taking me home from the hospital. The condition was temporary, but something more serious was not—hemophilia! This was a chronic condition that would change both my life and my parents' lives forever.

What is Hemophilia?

Quite simply, a hemophiliac's blood does not clot because of at least a missing protein. Therefore, hemophiliacs can hemorrhage easily and sometimes for no reason at all. I have severe hemophilia, meaning I have less than 1% of a normal person's clotting capacity. Without medicine— Factor— I could bleed to death. Typically, males inherit the disease from their carrier mothers. My maternal grandfather had hemophilia; my mother was a carrier of the disease; and I inherited it from her. That she bore a son with hemophilia was not a surprise. My parents knew the odds and decided to have a family anyway.

Hemophilia can be a crippling disease. A bump or sprain can pour blood into a joint until it swells to twice or three times its size. Worse, the blood acts like an acid on the joint, and continued hemorrhages deteriorate the joint until it becomes arthritic and bleeds spontaneously. As I grew up, I saw hemophiliac children confined to wheelchairs and restricted from social activities. It could have been a fearsome thing had not Mom and Dad taken another approach. They never made a big deal about the disease. They gave me my Factor, took the proper precautions, and allowed me to be a boy. Consequently, I had a happy childhood. When a joint started to bleed and swell, my parents would administer the Factor through an IV drug at home, and after a few days, I would be back playing. Without minimizing the challenge of hemophilia, I managed with Factor

When Factor was released to the hemophiliac community in the 1970s it was deemed a miracle drug. My grandfather spent nearly one-third of his life in the hospital tethered to an IV receiving whole blood and plasma transfusions. Until I was fifteen, I was only hospitalized for two days. But Factor is produced from a large pool of blood donors, and that reality would eventually wipe out an entire generation.

During the 1980s, few of us knew that the blood pool was contaminated with the HIV virus. In fact, during that decade, about 95% of hemophiliacs became infected. Most would eventually die from AIDS. As information trickled down to my parents, the frightening possibility of AIDS became a concern. Almost all my friends with whom I attended hemophilia camp contracted HIV, which became full-blown AIDS, and died. My mother's hemophiliac cousin was one of the casualties. No single community has ever been so devastated by AIDS as the hemophiliacs. The very medicine that we needed to stay alive was killing us!

The Crisis and the Miracle

For my parents, this was a time of much stress. The doctors were prescribing safeguards, but the pharmaceutical companies were releasing very little information. When they did, they were claiming that they were taking every precaution—but people continued to die in holocaust proportions. I share the story from my father's journal:

“That Ye May Stand as Witnesses”

I had been infected with HIV, but for a reason beyond reason my body never assimilated the disease and my life was spared. Today, the medicine is heated and frozen, which has eliminated HIV contamination, but during the 1980s almost every hemophiliac was infected.

Why I was saved when substantially everyone else in my generation was not I do not know. But because I was given a second chance weighs heavily on me. I feel the obligation of testimony that Alma 's people felt. The Lord said to them, “And I will also ease the burdens which are upon your shoulders, that ye cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this I will do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter…” What was to be the essence of their testimony? “That ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions” ( Alma 24:14).

My Witness

That is my testimony. I know of a surety that God visits his people in their afflictions. Every person who has even experienced divine deliverance can stand as a witness and bear the same testimony. And every miracle speaks to this one thing— Jesus saves! If he can do this, he can do anything. He can accomplish the greatest miracle of all: He can transform my heart, deliver me into the hands of God and make me like him in every way. I stand as a witness.

Invitation

I invite you to share your miracle stories with me. As I write my column for Meridian Magazine, I choose from the inspiring stories of others, allowing them to stand as witnesses. Contact me at barkdullm@lycos.com .