AMAZING STORY
Sophia Van Zant: 'Super Baby' Beats the Odds
By Gorman Woodfin
The 700 Club
CBN.com-Mark and Cassy Van Zant were excited. Cassy was expecting her third child.. But over time something seemed wrong.
Cassy: “It was just towards that seventh month was very different. I could tell there were some things in my body. It wasn’t like the normal pregnancies.”
Cassy’s husband, Mark, sensed it too.
Mark: “Being our third child, just kind of watching and being aware of what’s going on and the surroundings, it wasn’t like the other two.”
Cassy’s suspicions were right.
Cassy: “They’re uncertain of exactly when this happened. But at some point in time the placenta separated from the uterus and so therefore when that happened, that’s where the excessive blood came from and then that’s when her oxygen would have been cut off.”
The baby was not breathing when she was born.
Cassy: “She was blue and gray in color, and she was lifeless. They had given her to the medical staff and immediately they began attending to her needs and administering CPR.”
The doctors worked tirelessly to stabilize Sophia.
Cassy: “Her prognosis wasn’t good. She was fighting for her life and at that point in time her stability of life was in jeopardy and they weren’t sure whether she was going to live.”
After seven long hours, they let Cassy and Mark see their daughter.
Cassy: “They took us back to where she was and her tiny little body, at 4½ pounds, and seeing her. Her color had gotten better, but she had so many wires and tubes you could just hardly find her in the midst of it all. And we weren’t allowed to touch her. And I just remember just standing over her and just looking at her and, you know, it pulled on my heart.”
The doctors told them that Sophia had little chance of having a normal life.
Cassy: “Dr. Winchester came in and declared that she was no longer critical, that she was going to live. So, I remember that came out of his mouth, she was going to live. But because of, the oxygen deprivation in the womb, she was going to have some life-long problems, physically and mentally.”
Mark: “Because there was no oxygen in the brain that there could be brain damage, there could be motor skill issues.”
Despite the bad prognosis, Mark and Cassy say they clung to God for hope and prayed.
Cassy: “The faith of God just came up within me. I understand now of why it is so important to memorize scripture and to have revelation of His scripture before you go through storms. And the Lord started bringing up some different scriptures. And one of them was that, ‘You shall not die, but you shall live and declare the works of the Lord.’ And so we just began to speak that into her body and that we loved her and that we knew that God was faithful. And that He was going to touch her through this. God had a reason for her to be there on this earth and He was going to bring about that healing in her life.”
Step by step they saw their little girl get better.
Cassy: “They said she would need to be there a minimum of seven weeks. And on the third day the perforation in her lung completely healed up on its own. She was breathing on her own after the second day. Therefore, her brain activity was starting to register as normal, which before there was none, and then there was a little. So she was breathing on her own. She began to want to actually eat and want to nurse. And her vitals became normal.”
Little Sophia Joy was released from the hospital after only seven days.
Cassy: “The doctor called her, ‘super baby.’ He was absolutely taken back by it. He was amazed.”
Today Sophia Joy is a healthy five-year old and shows no signs of any physical or mental problems.
Mark: “She’s very imaginative, so she loves to play with her sisters. She loves to dress up and she loves puzzles. She’ll sit for hours and play with puzzles.”
Cassy: “I can’t comprehend what life would be like without her because she brings so much joy to us and that’s her middle name, Joy, Sophia Joy. Her eyes just sparkle and every time I look at her, I see God’s goodness. God is faithful. He honors His Word. That is what He has taught us this last few years. Is that He is faithful.”
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