John Smith, a 14-year-old boy from St Charles, Missouri, was clinically dead for an hour after falling into a frozen lake in January 2015, but made a full recovery in what doctors called a 'bonafide miracle'. His story has been turned into a film titled Breakthrough, starring Chrissy Metz, Topher Grace, and Marcel Ruiz.
On a cold Monday, John and his friends were off school and ventured onto a frozen lake. The ice cracked, plunging them into freezing water. While his two friends escaped, John remained trapped. Rescue diver Tommy Shine found him submerged for over 20 minutes, with no pulse. Emergency responders worked on him by the lake edge before transporting him to St. Joseph West Hospital.
At the hospital, the medical team tried for more than 40 minutes to revive him, but failed to get a pulse, heartbeat, or breath. Dr. Kent Sutterer was about to call time of death when he learned that John's adoptive mother, Joyce, had arrived. He allowed her to say goodbye, intending to declare death afterwards.
Joyce prayed over her son, saying, 'I believe in a God who can do miracles! Holy Spirit, I need you right now to come and breathe life back into my son.' Immediately, the heart monitor showed a pulse. A nurse reported that something moved through John's body with force, pushing her back, and then a pulse returned.
John was airlifted to Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center, where doctors gave him a one percent chance of survival, warning he would likely be a vegetable. However, he defied expectations and made a full recovery. His attending physician, Dr. Jeremy Garrett, a hypothermia and drowning expert, had initially believed he would never regain normal neurological function.
