Skateboarder Credits God with Amazing Recovery

"Judah came in, I saw the blood and he said, 'Mom, I need help,'" recalled Judah Martin's mother, Heather Martin. Judah had his share of skateboard injuries. The 15-year-old practiced constantly, with dreams of going pro.

This one would be different. Her daughter, Madison, had been recording Judah on her iPad when he fell hard in their driveway. Heather recounted, "I watched the video and when I realized that he had knocked himself unconscious, I took Judah, put him in the car, took him up to Urgent Care. They determined he had no feeling on his left side. He couldn't feel anything.”

Ten minutes later, Judah’s dad, Jacob, arrived from work after getting a text from Heather. "And he was, you know, his neck was flopping all over the place. He was shaking. His body started to go into shock, and he was trembling. And at that point, you know, my heart began to break. So I grabbed his head and pulled him into my chest and just started praying in the Spirit over him. And as I grabbed him to pray he reaches up, grabs my arm, you know, while his body is shaking, and says, ‘Dad, don't worry, God's gonna heal me. We've got this,’” said Jacob.

Urgent care doctors called 911 to have Judah rushed to the trauma unit at the Children’s Hospital of the Kings Daughters in Norfolk, Va. By the time the ambulance arrived, over a dozen doctors and nurses were waiting for him.  

Heather's faith became challenged as the reality began to set in, "That is when I started to come unglued a little bit, because of how serious it was. I mean, there were so many people poking, prodding, asking questions. And at that point the neurosurgeon and the team that was in there, he looked and he said, 'Get him into a CAT scan and an MRI immediately.' And I just broke down and I started crying."

Judah's father recalls, “After that first scan everything kind of started to come unraveled at that point. The doctors said, 'Hey, listen, there's something going on, we don't know what it is, but we've just found a spot on your son's brain.'"

Scans revealed the tendons connecting Judah’s spine were almost completely severed and he could be paralyzed.

Heather recalls the moment things shifted unexpectedly, “There was a moment where I felt the Holy Spirit just ask in the most gentle way, 'Do you still believe that God is good?' And I became so completely and utterly convinced by the goodness of God. Not even knowing what we were gonna hear, what we were gonna see, what they were gonna say.”

Jacob stayed with their son overnight, while Heather went home. He knew he needed to pray, but says God challenged him in a different way. The Holy Spirit prompted him to share Judah’s hospital picture on Facebook. “And I felt like the Lord challenging me, saying, 'I want you to trust your friends. I want you to trust the body of Christ to get up and pray for you.' And at that moment, it was like 3 in the morning, I was like, 'Probably no one's gonna see this.'  
But for some reason, it just caught fire, and we – we were getting texts from all over the country at that point.”  

First thing next morning, one of Judah’s doctors came into his room with test results. Judah had suffered a near fatal concussion and would need a neck brace for his body to heal, but there was something else. The first doctor came in at around 7 a.m. and said, '"Hey, we don't know what happened, but that spot on your son's brain is gone, completely gone,'” recalled Jacob with joy. “I remember jumping up in the hospital room and I was like, ‘Yeah! Come on, Jesus.’"  

Judah recalls his healing, “It really shook me, I really thought about it and I thought of all the people who have been paralyzed, and that could have been me."

After eight weeks of rehab and more prayer, Judah went back to his neurologist for a final check-up. Heather recalls the tension in the room. “And he [the doctor] comes in the room, and he goes, 'Alright,' he said, 'I've looked at Judah's MRI,' he said, "and honestly it doesn't even look like he had an injury to his neck at all. It doesn't look like anything even happened,'" recalled Heather, rejoicing. “That is God. Only God can do that.”

As for Judah, he’s back to doing what he loves. “He healed me, and because of Him I'm skateboarding and living a good life right now. And thinking on that is always good. Because no matter what I'm going through, I always have in my heart that I know that God healed me, and I can tell others about that and help them come to Christ."

Heather smiles,”That is why we have to surrender every day to the Lord and say, 'God, I invite you into this day. Whatever it looks like, whatever it holds, I am choosing to walk by faith and not by sight. I am choosing to trust You with the outcome of my day.' So for anybody that is experiencing trauma or has experienced loss, I would challenge them and say, 'Surrender your days to the Lord. Trust Him, because He's a trustworthy God. Seek His face in all things and surrender all things to the feet of Jesus and watch Him. Look for the fingerprint of God in your situation and in your circumstance. I promise you'll see it.'”