Months after North Carolina pastor Ryan Marlow was declared dead, he is home with his family as his wife speaks of hope.
The full saga of Marlow’s journey is told on a Facebook page called Ryan’s Recovery.
As noted by People, the family’s ordeal began in August, when what began as a listeria infection led to a traumatic brain stem injury.
Then his condition deteriorated.
Whoa🤭: Doctors declared a NC pastor brain dead in August & were ready to harvest his organs.
But a timely wiggle of his toe prompted his wife to step in & demand more tests.
Six months later, Ryan Marlow has returned home & is recovering with his family by his side. pic.twitter.com/eVe6bKblsz— Michele️🥶🆘SaveUkraine🆘️️🥶 (@RadarResist) March 12, 2023
“He was clinically deceased. He had passed away,” Megan Marlow, Ryan’s wife, said she was told by a nurse, according to WXII-TV. “She said, ‘Your husband has passed.’ Those were the words that were used.”
But they were wrong. Experts “discovered that they made a mistake and that my husband, in fact, did not pass away,” she said, according to People.
“I was told he still suffered a traumatic brain stem injury and he was still basically brain dead,” she said, adding that he would be declared dead at the time of his organ donation surgery.
But as the family said their goodbyes, one of his feet twitched. The doctors said he was in a “deep coma” and still alive.
“God’s kept him here,” Megan Marlow stated. “He’s supposed to be dead, he’s supposed to be at the funeral home right now according to these doctors.”
On Thursday, a post on Ryan’s Recovery page gave an update.
“This morning he signed to us that he needs us for everything. And then shook his head in agreement that it made him feel bad. I told him we were all happy to be there and we were just thankful we had him to take care of. But that it won’t be like this forever and to use that as motivation to work on getting stronger. He firmly nodded his head and signed he’s ready to work!!” the post read.
In a March 7 post on her Facebook page, Megan Marlow posted that her husband “signed to me Friday night with sign language that he was blessed to have me. No my dear, I’m the one that’s blessed!! Looking forward to the day when he can grab my hand and talk to me, share his vision, his dreams, his fears. And then make me laugh and roll my eyes by telling a corny joke. One day babe… it’s coming!!”
“Watch your perspective friends. Things can change in an instant. Cherish your spouse, prefer one another, serve one another selflessly,” she wrote.
Ryan Marlow, pastor once declared dead, can now squeeze wife’s hand https://t.co/TPIZUFW08N pic.twitter.com/LWmW01k6Uq
— New York Post (@nypost) October 15, 2022
In a Sept. 28, 2022, post on her Facebook page, she wrote, “One.Month.Ago.Today… (as I type this after midnight)… A doctor told me the love of my life had passed away. One month ago today my life had seemingly changed dramatically as I planned my husband’s funeral and rehearsed how I was going to tell our children their daddy was now in Heaven with Jesus. But flash forward to now. A month later and he’s still here!!”
“Making small steps of progress every day!! ONE thing the Lord has taught me is you have to learn to see Him in the where, the when, the who and even the what!!! You have to see the Lord and what is being done in your life right now! Don’t miss what He’s trying to teach you! There are things in my life today that I do NOT like. And I definitely don’t try to understand. BUT even in every step that I walk, God is working His plan,” she wrote.
