Yes, modern medical practices and procedures prayers save lives and bring about miracles.
COLWICH – “Chase survived in part because hundreds of people prayed to Father Emil Kapaun to intercede on his behalf. It was absolutely a miracle.”
People in Colwich like to touch Chase Kear’s arm or his shoulder with their fingers. Or they hug him. “Miracle Man,” they say. “Let me touch the miracle.” With anybody else in Colwich, this would be just talk. But it’s not just talk to the Vatican.
Prompted in part by what the Kear family has said publicly, and partly by a preliminary investigation begun by the Catholic Diocese of Wichita, a Vatican investigator named Andrea Ambrosi will arrive from Italy in Wichita on Friday.
He will investigate on behalf of the church in Rome whether 20-year-old Chase Kear’s survival qualifies as a miracle; whether he survived a severe head injury last year in part because his family and hundreds of friends successfully prayed thousands of prayers to the soul of Father Emil Kapaun, a U.S. Army chaplain from Pilsen, Kan., who died a hero in the Korean War.
And now the rest of the story:
A young man in Kansas had a traumatic event in his life. Here’s a simple outline of what happened.
Chase Kear has a serious accident, fracturing his skull.
↓Bystanders call for emergency medical help on their phones.
↓Doctors arrive in a helicopter.
↓Doctors administer emergency care.
↓Helicopter arrives at hospital; doctors take him into surgery.
↓Surgeons remove portion of his skull to protect his brain from swelling.
↓Kear is treated with antibiotics to prevent infections.
↓Swelling reduces, doctors restore Kear’s skull.
↓Kear survives, is rehabilited, and seems to be making a full recovery.
Clearly it was the prayers to a long dead Catholic Chaplain which saved Chase. To believe otherwise would be proof you are a godless, atheistic, socialistic Marxist. Or a Muslim. Like Obama.
Hat tip to Pz Meyers.
were the prayers done during the surgery? Was it at a time when the soul of Father Emil Kapaun is normally sleeping? Or is the soul of Father Emil Kapaun on call? I have many questions.
Silly BooMan? Saints never sleep in Heaven. And they all have magical pagers which jar them awake should they ever nod off during one of the many worship services they attend. That’s why they’re saints. Most people, turn those damn pagers off.
If I understand this neurological procedure, it is done all the time. Prayers help the afflicted to think something special is being done. Of course it is, it is called surgery. Surgery by very skilled and masterful hand of a surgeon.
I don’t think I need to say more.
I think the procedure was done starting back in the mid to latter 70’s if my mind remembers correctly. It is like one of those things that was done during a war time that ppl were trying out to save life off the battlefield
The final and untold part of the story: Saddled with several hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical debt, Chase had to declare bankruptcy. He ended up living out of the back of a ’63 Studebaker Lark. Of course, all of this could have been avoided with a viable public option.
Viable Public Option.
That would make me believe in miracles.
Let’s all pray to Father Emil Kapaun and see if he can help us all out.
I really don’t see the point of this post. With all that great medical care, the guy still could have died. You don’t know any better than they do why or how he pulled through.
that’s one way of looking at it. The other is that we could do an experiment on the next person with the same head injuries. Instead of treating them medically, we could pray for them and see if that works.
Why don`t we pray that it happens to someone in Wichita, & we might be able to delineate the miracle perimeter & everybody could
go to that area to buy miracle water & bumper stickers.
Haaha
I`ve fallen & I can`t get up, or
I`m tripping & I can`t come down.
I need the coordinates.
Please help or send a clapper.
Better yet, call Maria,
I assume you’re joking, Boo. I never suggested they not be treated medically. Nor did any of the people who prayed.
The reason I don’t see the point is that the underlying premise — “People should not pray” — is simply untenable. There are people who do not pray, and that’s up to them, but the fact is, most humans have always prayed and always will. If you want to criticize various manifestations of religion, there are finer distinctions that could be made, to put it mildly. In other words, criticize distortions of religion, such as are seen in the ruling junta in Iran today, or the wingnut christianoids in this country, but don’t criticize religion such as manifested in the spiritual courage of those who are resisting that junta. No less than their fascistic rulers, most of them pray five times a day. They just don’t pray for the same thing.
I don’t care if people pray. I just think asking for stuff like it’s a letter to Santa is kind of stupid. But, I really could care less what people do as long as they realize that a medical emergency doesn’t require prayer, it requires skilled doctors.
True. We can however say with a high degree of confidence that it didn’t involve things which are basically known not to exist.
Deductively, he whole problem with religious superstition is that if spirit existed and had any effect on matter at all, it would be possible to measure that effect by excluding all physical influences.
Inductively, any rational person should be suspicious of claims of the existence of a God who did big, dramatic miracles once, but who retreated to doing insignificant, unprovable ones just as soon as cameras became ubiquitous. It is in fact difficult to imagine any way that religion could be more obviously fraudulent.
like the rude one says:
…we shouldn’t give a shit about doctors because an invisible sky wizard will heal us if we’re willing to let his voice be in our heads…
prayer warriorstroglodytes.I consider myself as athiest. I have no doubt that this guy survived solely by the skill of his surgeons and his physical fortitude.
But….I’ll say this; if I were injured or one of my children injured and their life was in the balance I would not deny help in any form, least of all an outpouring of positive energy, whether it be prayer, meditation, or plain good thoughts. Religion used in this way does no harm, means…no harm. It means well.
Besides, his mother said;
“Chase survived in part because hundreds of people prayed to Father Emil Kapaun to intercede on his behalf.”
Agreed. But in the aftermath, this event is being used like other “miracles” to con people into detaching themselves from reality and putting their time, effort, and invariably money into religious institutions that are anything but harmless.
I’m glad this kid survived his ordeal and that he’s obviously surrounded by a lot of people who care deeply about him. That’s really wonderful. What’s not wonderful is the way the event is being used to expand the swamp of ignorance and superstition that reason and science have been trying to drain for centuries — the same reason and science that saved the boy’s life. That this is going on in Kansas, where religion, much of it extremist, has lately led to assassinations and the erosion of reality-based education, is at the very least saddening.
On a totally unrelated and frivilous tangent, I just noticed your email address — are you a Lomo user?
I agree & also concur with Super, but I mainly had to check out the “Lomo” link.
Strangely enough though I`d say Super`s color splashing does leave one with a better outlook.
At first glance I`d thought, damn, I`ve used all kinds of stuff, but this must be what the kids are calling it now, or I`m just too old school.
I`ll have to go back to the link though. I just took a quick glance.
Have a great day.
What`s up Super? Everything OK?
Lomo’s main products are replicas of Soviet-era cameras, the LC-A and the Holga. The LC-A was originally designed to be a compact, wide-angle, zone-focused camera for use by the Soviet intelligence agencies. It’s basically equivalent to the old Kodak Scout, but about a third the size. The Holga is an all-plastic medium format appreciated by some for its amazingly low quality — distortions, vignetting, and light leaks come free with each purchase. The LC-A, by contrast, is actually a pretty nice fixed-lens 35mm camera, if somewhat overpriced.
Just about everything else Lomo sells is gimmicky but fun stuff like the Colorsplash flash, plastic cameras that take four exposures in a single frame, cheap underwater cameras, and replicas of lo-fi cameras from the 60’s.
I own an embarrassingly large amount of Lomo gear, though my main camera is the trusty old Pentax Spotmatic F.
What’s up, Knucklehead? :o)
Everything is cool with me. Everything that’s important, that is! The rest is clutter :o)
I had a nice Dad’s Day yesterday and that primed me up enough to hurdle any unforeseen obstacles I haven’t picked up on yet :o)
Hey Super,
Isn`t it amazing how a bunch of love on a celebratory day can boost your strength to battle future unforeseen turmoil.
I`m glad all`s is well with the wind in your sails.
Oh… the way the event is being used. But that is a different issue.
Nothing in your comment to disagree with. I personally, have no use for religious institutions of any sort. I have an opinion about the the quality of any thinking mind that allows itself to be sunk in the swamp, but I’m mellowing a little and no longer find it useful or particularly relevant to question the sanity of those who believe what I don’t. You can’t unsave those who want and need to be saved. We’re all insane in our own ways.
Obviously, I draw a line when beliefs become a means to subjugate, exclude and or otherwise cause harm. But I don’t see it in this specific instance. There are many athiests who are just as maniacal as the southern baptists or seventh dayers are when they assert that their non belief is the only logical belief.
Why can’t we all just get along :oP
My email address is a holdover from my custom graphic painting business. The splash was meant to signify the marine aspect of the machines I worked on. I always thought it was corny, the word colorsplash. I’m grateful to you for pointing out that there’s at least one other person prone to coining corny names :o)
.
His exemplary life is.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.".
Chaplain Kapaun first served his god and country in battle in the China-Burma-India (CBI) Theater during World War II. Arriving in India in April of 1945, he ministered to soldiers along the Ledo Road from Ledo, India to Lashio, Burma. <snip>
KOREA WAR NEAR CHINA BORDER
Outwardly he was all G.I., tough of body, rough of speech sometimes, full of the wry humor of the combat soldier. In a camp where men had to steal or starve, he was the most accomplished food thief of them all. In a prison whose inmates hated their communist captors with a bone deep hate, he was the most unbending enemy of Communism, and when they tried to brainwash him, he had the guts to tell them to their faces that they lied. He pitied the Reds for their delusions, but he preached no doctrine of turn-the-other-cheek. I came upon him once sitting in the sunshine by the road. There was a smile on his face and a look of happiness in his eyes.
I hated to break in on his meditations, but I needed cheering, so I asked him, “What are you thinking of, Father?” “Of that happy day,” he said, “when the first American tank rolls down the road, then I’m going to catch that little so and so, Comrade Sun, and kick his butt right over the compound fence.”
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."