Philip's Testimony

by Susan Mathews

I thank God for this opportunity to share our son’s testimony. His name is Philip. Some people ask why we named him Philip. We agreed to keep the sex of the baby a surprise and because of the initial poor report from our doctor, decided that if we had a boy, our desire was that God would use him like the Philip in the book of Acts, who evangelized, baptized and was used for God’s glory. Now we are sharing his testimony, but soon Philip will witness himself throughout the world.

Philip's testimony began 8 years ago when we had our first ultrasound. After the scan the obstetrician took the pictures and told us "we like to see perfect pictures in these scans, but these are not perfect." She went on to say that there was a cleft in his lip and in his palate. She arranged for us to see a high-risk obstetrician (perinatologist) immediately after this ultrasound.

The perinatologist confirmed the cleft lip and palate and also identified a hole in the baby's heart, but it was what he could not find that concerned him the most. He could not find Philip's stomach. He felt the most likely diagnosis for this was a diaphragmatic hernia. Basically, the stomach was pushed upwards through the diaphragm into his lung cavity. Because of this Philip's lungs would not develop properly and he would either die before birth or die while trying to take his first breath. "There is no hope that this baby will live," were the words I remember from that day. Considering all these defects, the perinatologist reasoned, it may be better to go ahead and abort this baby.

While I was in high school and college, we were asked to debate on controversial topics such as abortion, and I had always believed that abortion was the wrong choice. I never dreamed that I would have to make that very same life or death choice for my baby. Is abortion ever justified? It's easy to write a paper on it, or to just talk about it. But what if you were the one that had to make the choice? I had already decided that I would never kill an innocent life. The medical professionals may say it's impossible for the baby to make it, but I know that the things that are impossible with men are possible with God.

After we got home we prayed and our pastor Abraham came home and started sharing with us from Jeremiah 18:3, 4. This is a story that I had read a million times before, but I found new meaning in it this time.  

3 Then I went down to the potter's house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels.
4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

We've seen potters work on their wheels to make vessels. Sometimes they have to throw the vessel away because they have messed it up at a critical juncture. However, though the vessel this potter had made was marred, he did not discard it. The verse says that he used the same clay to form a new vessel. That was a beautiful illustration of the miracle taking place in Philip's life. We put our trust in God and held on to this verse.

The news spread to our relatives and friends all over the world, and many l know fasted and prayed for us. Our annual revival meeting in our church was on the following weekend. The visiting minister heard about Philip's poor health report and called both me and my husband up to pray. With the entire church praying in the spirit behind us, Santhosh was asked to place his hand on my stomach and we started praying in faith. The presence of God was so powerful in that place, and my husband later on said that he felt power flowing down from his hands to my stomach. We were convinced that God was healing our baby.

The following week we saw the children's heart specialist (cardiologist). With the fetal echocardiogram he saw one large hole plus several small holes in the baby's heart. He confirmed that on occasion the holes do heal without surgical intervention. However, in some cases, open heart surgery is the best option. The depending factor is how well Philip would respond after birth. He could not give us any definite answers at this time.

This news was a bit discouraging but the song "Whose report will you believe? We shall believe the report of the Lord" was resounding in my heart. We followed up with the perinatologist again the next week. He told us that by this time it was legally too late to perform an abortion, but if we wanted to he could provide us with medical reasons to get permission for the abortion. We told him that abortion was not an option because we had prayed about this and we believed that God will work.

He then did another ultrasound. After scanning for a few minutes he sat back in his chair shaking his head. When we saw that we were concerned and asked him "what's wrong?" He then turned to us and said "I see a small stomach and all the organs are in its place." He went on to say that the baby's life threatening problems are resolved and that all the other defects (like his cleft lip, palate, heart) are surgically correctable. "This baby has a chance to live, if you want to continue with this pregnancy" he said.

So we went from a hopeless situation to a situation full of hope, because of the touch of God. On July 27, 2000, Philip Santhosh Mathews was born. After the nurses dressed Philip and brought him to me. I was crying, but he was just looking at me with one big eye and not even crying as if to say "thank you, mommy, for life!"

As in this picture, He was all cozy and snuggly, so I didn't know that he did not have a right eye or ear. The doctors did a CT scan on him, however, and confirmed that he did not have an eye or ear on his right side. He also was missing the center tissue of the brain called the corpus callosum. This tissue connects the left and right side of the brain and the absence of this tissue is often associated with mental retardation, epilepsy, and many different syndromes. They identified the pattern as Goldenhar syndrome. This usually affects the middle structures of the body like the brain, the clefts, the heart, the spine and the kidneys.

After he was born the same cardiologist came to see him and started him on heart medications to keep him from going into heart failure. He could take nothing by mouth and so they placed a tube down his nose to the stomach to feed him his milk. Because he was tolerating this feeding after two weeks the surgeon put a G-Tube in his stomach so that we could feed him his milk straight into his stomach.

He had complications after surgery (as you see in this picture) and they had to keep him on a mini ventilator for several days. The surgeon warned us then that because his mouth and airway were abnormal and small he would have difficult time breathing on his own after surgery. Also if he were to catch a cold the phlegm could obstruct his airway and he would probably end up with a tracheotomy tube, where they slit the throat and insert a tube so he can breathe.

Philip spent his first month of life in the intensive care unit, then he finally came home. He followed up with one of his seven doctors about every week. Before his cleft lip surgery could be performed, he had to receive clearance from his cardiologist.

We saw our cardiologist at least two to three times a month. Philip would have chest x-rays at each visit to make sure his heart was not getting larger. One day on a routine visit the cardiologist after viewing his x-rays told us "whatever you are doing, keep on doing it, because his heart is getting back to normal size." We told him that we have been praying!

So after Christmas they began to work on his lips and by the end of January they completed his lip repair, as you see in this picture. He still could not eat anything by his mouth, but all milk by the G tube.   He continued to grow and play as we see here in these pictures.

In March the heart doctor did another echocardiogram and said that the machine could not identify any holes in Philip's heart. He could still hear a small murmur, so there is probably a small hole somewhere but the machine could not identify it. We weaned him off all his heart medicines after that good report. Finally, in June 2005, our cardiologist said," everything looks and sounds as normal and perfect as it should be with his heart. You don't need to come back and see me anymore.

Philip still had some developmental delays. He could not sit up by himself, or say bye bye or Mama or Pappa. He still had to work on these things. It seems like every time we make some headway with Philip’s developmental growth, the time came for another surgery that would set him back. 

In August they repaired his palate, in September we finally got clearance to feed him by mouth. I was so anxious to cook something for him to eat, or to take him to McDonalds to eat, but he would not eat anything. He was so scared of anything around his mouth like a spoon or a bottle. In God's own time, almost 1 ½ years after he was born, he started eating by mouth and drinking from a sippy cup.

In January 2002, they removed the cyst from Philip's right eye and in May they did a follow-up surgery. That summer we fitted him for the prosthetic eye.

Early 2003, we had to see a spine specialist for the curve that had developed in Philip's spine. He was sent to get a brace to put on his back to keep the curve from getting worse. Originally, they wanted us to keep the brace on his body till he is 18 or 19 and then put rods in his spine to keep it straight. But as of March 2008, the doctor said his curve has continued to increase degree wise. He was in the 60-70 range. But this x-ray the curve measured 88 degrees. His spine surgeon recommends that he be evaluated for a new type of spinal surgery for severe scoliosis. But I say that if my God can create a stomach where there was no stomach, and give hope for a hopeless case; if Jesus can make the blind man see, and straighten the back of a woman who was bent over; and if Jesus is the same yesterday today and forever, that surgery will never take place.

Philip is now a seven year old boy. He has been through almost 16 surgical procedures, yet his story I trust will bring you hope. Remember the question asked in the Bible, "Is there anything too hard for the Lord?" I believe that there is nothing too difficult for God; whether it is an absent stomach, a heart full of holes, a curved spine, or any hopeless situation, all things are possible through God. May God bless and strengthen you!

A copy of Philip's medical report is shown below