Sasha Belcher and her husband, Nathan, were just glowing with excitement over the anticipation of welcoming their second child into the world. At four months along, the expectant mother was nearly halfway through the beautiful journey that would soon bear their brand new bundle of joy.
All signs indicated that she was happy, healthy and stable—but one morning, a single piercing pain down the middle of her forehead changed everything.
Sasha had experienced migraines since she was about 11 years old, but something about this one was different. Concerned over his wife’s unusual headache, Nathan urged her to go to the hospital. Though the symptoms may not have seemed ER-worthy just yet, his intuition told him something was wrong.
And thank God, because his gut instinct was dead on.
By the time they got to the hospital, Sasha was already unconscious, and her heart stopped just moments later. Before Nathan could even process what was happening, his wife was flown to the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences where they immediately started emergency surgery.
“They had already cut her hair, they had all the tubes in her, I was terrified out of my mind,” said Nathan. “I didn’t know what was going on.”
He was informed that Sasha’s surgery was supposed to take approximately eight hours, but just one hour into the procedure, doctors came out with gut-wrenching news. They spotted a tangle of burst blood vessels in her brain that had formed a two-inch clot, and Sasha was too unstable to have it safely removed.
By medical standards, it was unreachable. Inoperable.
There was nothing more they could do.
But thankfully, God wasn’t finished yet.
The best the surgeons could do to alleviate pressure on the brain was to remove the fluid around the mass, but they had no hope left for her survival. They regretfully informed Nathan that his wife would likely not last through the night.
“I told them I didn’t think she would survive the night. I had done everything I could to help her, but the rest was up to God at that point,” said Sasha’s neurologist, Dr. Abla. “I remember talking to people who were in my operating room that day who went home and cried—nurses in our operating room—after this surgery.”
They tearfully told Nathan he needed to make the dreaded “call.”
It was time for friends and family to say their final goodbyes.
But Nathan just couldn’t do it. Sasha would survive against all odds. He knew it in his bones:
“I couldn’t finish the text message, I couldn’t send it… Because it felt like, if I would have told them that my wife is dying, then that was me giving up on her.”
Nathan couldn’t bear the thought of losing not only his wife, but his best friend.
“We met in tenth grade—geometry class—she told me I had horrible hair… She kind of gives me direction, she’s made me a much better person.”
Miraculously, Sasha survived what the doctors swore would kill her. One week later, she went back in for one more operation.
“Just like the first time, they came back after an hour, we were terrified,” said Nathan. “The last time they did that they told us she wasn’t going to make it, but it was the polar opposite.”
Sasha bounced back remarkably and fully recovered.
However, their unborn son was still in peril after being without oxygen for so long.
Dr. Abla is convinced that this warrior mama bear’s will to live kept her and her baby fighting:
“This is someone who definitely has a will to live, who subconsciously is thinking about her baby, as soon as she came around, you could tell that she was touching her stomach. You could tell this was someone who was fighting not only for her life, but for the life of her child…”
A few months later, the adorably perfect Jack Grayson was born.
He suffered no ramifications from his mom’s health scare.
For the Belchers, this beautiful baby boy’s face will forever be their reminder of the saving hand of God and the sheer will of a mother to create living miracles. ❤️
