Orthodox Parables and Stories: "My daughter was dying in my arms, I was asking Saint Luke to help us": real incident in a Moscow hospital"

At 9 months old, my daughter came down with whooping cough. And after a month, around Christmas, she developed complications. I called the emergency room, and the doctor who examined her suspected pneumonia, which was not confirmed by the doctor on duty at the hospital where we had been brought. We returned home. My daughter's condition worsened. We had to call a private doctor, and he came to our house. He urgently recommended hospitalization and gave us all the necessary details.

I remember taking my daughter to the Morozov hospital. Out of anxiety I confused the streets and passed the intersections where I had to turn.

In desperation I ran to the police station. The police stopped the traffic on the main street of Sandovoe Kolcho (!) so that I could go straight to the hospital. At the ER they told me to wait because we are from another part of town...

People who have a similar experience know how little time is left in a baby who has pneumonia. I was standing looking at my daughter when her face started to turn yellow and her lips turned blue. Her little eyes were looking past me, she wasn't responding to me. I froze with every passing second. I had no strength either to cry or to demand anything. All I could do was ask Saint Luke to help.

A female doctor was walking past us at a fast pace. She took a quick glance at the baby changing tables where my daughter was in the hallway and suddenly stopped: "What do you have here?" I almost couldn't speak, I let out a groan something like: "Well, then...". The doctor called staff and in 10 minutes my daughter was taken for an x-ray. She was then taken to the ICU.

Then the hospitalization and treatments began under the supervision of the head of the isolation ward, the oldest doctor in the hospital. She was then already 84 years old. My girl was saved.

When we were discharged, I decided to give her a large book of the works of St. Luke the Physician. She scowled (the lady turned out to be a bit abrupt and strange): "Why are you giving it to me now?" I lost it a bit and apologized to her for giving her a gift she didn't like. She, in her characteristic style and with a raised tone of voice, began to say: "It is Valentin Feliksovitch! During the years of our studies, we had his book "Essays on the surgery of pyogenic infections" as a basic book! Where and how did you include him among the saints?" I answered her that yes, Saint Luke has been canonized. "I don't know if he's a saint or not, but listen," she continued: "At Christmas I let the other doctors go home  and was ministering alone: ​​I am alone and I don't want to stay at home. These are young doctors let them spend these new year days with their families. I fell asleep, as I was sitting at the table in the post, and behold, I see in a dream Voyno-Yasenetsky saying to me: "Why are you sleeping, my dear? Since Vera is waiting for you!" And there, the phone rang from the emergency room and I was told that I had to admit a very serious case of a girl with pneumonia. Since it was your Vera! And now you're giving me this book."

On March 18*, my daughter Vera, who became well, turned 1 year old. It is precisely the day of the collection of the relics of Saint  Luke the Physician and the day we celebrate his memory.

Saint Luke, intercede for us!