Heart & Soul: Ronald Winans' Story of Triumph
Once he got back home to Detroit, Ronald was examined and diagnosed by heart specialist Dr. Michael Deeb.
"He was sort of slumped over and he was leaning forward. He was pursed-lipped and just struggling for air. I put my stethoscope on his chest, and you could just hear that blood swishing back into the heart. I knew that he had a big, big problem. What had happened to him was he had torn his aorta, and he wasn't pumping any blood forward into his body. Everything was backing up into his heart and subsequently backing up into his lungs," says Dr. Deeb.
Ronald was rushed to the intensive care unit and put on life support.
"I remember praying, just talking to God," says Ronald. "I remember telling Him things like, 'I gave You my youth. I've been all over this world telling people that You're a healer.' I've never really been sick, outside of colds. I said, 'I believe that You can do anything. I believe You could raise the dead. And I've told people that you can. Now, in order for You to validate this, You can't let me die.' Then I remember a calmness coming over me and a peace. I went to sleep and that was it."
The doctors called the family in to give them the grim news.
"He told us that there was no need of even doing any surgery," Ronald's mother, Delores Winans, recalls. "He said, 'What we want to do is just wake Ronald up and let you all talk with him. He can tell the family good-bye,' because there was no hope. Of course, we knew that there was hope because our faith was in Jesus Christ, but it was quite a blow. We weren't looking for that."
"I didn't know whether he had enough heart left to withstand the insult," adds Dr. Deebs.
After discussing it with the family, Delores says that they called The 700 Club, TBN, and Bishop Jakes for prayer.
When Pat Robertson and Terry Meeuwsen got the report that Ronald had had a massive heart attack and learned that only the right side of his heart was working, and only at 30 percent, they agreed together in prayer before the television viewers. Pat prayed this prayer: "Father, in the holy name of Jesus, we hold before You this dear friend with the Winans. We ask, O God, that You might reach into his heart and heal him by the power of the Holy Spirit. We thank You for miracles of healing. We thank You for the glory of the Lord."
With the support of prayer from the body of believers and with faith in God's ability to heal Ronald, the family decided to let the doctors operate.
Although Ronald was unconscious, he says he remembers something extraordinary happening to him.
"I remember coming out of my body, my spirit, which was myself," Ronald explains. "It wasn't like it was some spooky thing where you're flying around. It was like I got out and left the shell there. Once I came out, I felt so good it was like, 'Whoa!' This was actually what I said to myself, 'Whoa! I'm glad I'm out of that!' because I didn't feel any pain, any stress, any hurt. I was at a peaceful state. But I was out of there. I could hear the prayers of the saints. I could hear them calling my name."
The doctors operated and repaired the aorta, but when they put his heart back on line to pump blood, something went drastically wrong.
Says Dr. Deeb explaining, "It just distended, got big and got big, because as we filled it up with blood, it couldn't contract and squeeze everything forward. In layman's terms, it blew up like a balloon."
Dr. Deeb left surgery to give the family the bad news. By now, more than 70 friends and family were in the waiting room praying for Ronald.
"He told us how everything had just seemed to go wrong, but he was going to go back and try again. He said something then that really struck me. He said, 'It's going to be up to Ronald and God,' " Ronald's mother recalls.
"They wanted to pray. I said, 'That'll be fine. We can use all the help we can get at this point. We need some help,' says Dr. Deeb. "They asked me would it be all right if they put hands on me, and I said that would be fine. They began praying. It was a new experience for me because I'd never heard anyone pray in tongues. I just tried to remain calm and see my way through it. When it was over, the father said, 'I want to pray.' He led a very powerful prayer. Then he said something to me that I'll never forget. He said to me, 'You go in there and take my son off bypass. He will live.' And I said, 'OK.' "
Dr. Deeb returned to the OR, while the family went to the chapel.
"As I walked toward the operating room," Dr Deeb says, "I gained this confidence, and I developed a belief, just as his father did, that he was going to do all right. By the time I got to the operating room, I remember I opened the door and I said, 'Get everything ready. We're coming off bypass.' I distinctly remember the anesthesiologist rolling his eyes. I went out and I scrubbed. I came in and I said, 'We're going to do it this time.' We slowly weaned him and he remained steady. I thought, Once we start transfusing him, his heart will distend and he just won't deal with it, but he dealt with it. He slowly got stronger and got stronger and stabilized and he quit bleeding. We closed him up, took him upstairs, and he survived."
"After we had praised God and came out, the doctors were out there waiting for us, the doctors that did the surgery. They wanted to see us and to shake our hands because each one of them said that it wasn't them. One doctor even told me, 'We didn't do it. There was another hand that was helping us,' " Ronald's mom recalls.
"I'm sure the Winans believe it was a miracle, and I think everybody in that operating room believes it was a miracle because we really had no explanation for it," says Dr. Deeb. "I learned to pray in the OR. from that day on. I've learned to ask for some help along the way."
"Corporate prayer means a lot," adds Delores. "When people are praying for you, it's like bombarding heaven."
When asked if he believes he went to heaven, Ronald says, "I didn't see any bright light, but I was just in a place of peace. That's the only thing I can recollect. It's totally peace in the presence of the Lord, peace you can't even describe."
Ronald is serious about making sure others know what he experienced.
"I want them to know it's real and that this is no joke," he says.
