Deathly Ill Boy Spurs Worldwide Prayer for Dying Baby: Both are Healed

Steve Rees : Mar 24, 2014
Assist News Service

While on a ventilator, the actions of 14-year-old hospital patient Tristan Wiggins ignited worldwide prayer on behalf of fragile baby struggling for her life.

(Shreveport, LA)—When six-week-old Scarlett Johnson was released from a hospital in Shreveport, LA, in March 2014, her parents Jake and Whitley Johnson, were grateful for the doctors and nurses who saved their daughter's life from a near-fatal case of whooping cough. But the Johnsons were more than grateful for their daughter's roommate at Louisiana State University Hospital, 14-year-old Tristan Wiggins, whose actions ignited worldwide prayer on behalf of fragile Scarlett. (Photo via ANS)

Inside the hospital's pediatric intensive care unit, heavily sedated and breathing with help from a ventilator, Wiggins was unaware of his new roommate until Scarlett began to cough in the night. Nurses arrived within seconds of Wiggins pushing the remote call button next to his catheter tube, thinking the worst for their young patient recovering from an advanced case of pneumonia and fluid build-up in his lungs.

"Don't worry about me; take care of her," the 14-year-old wrote after reaching for paper and pencil near his hospital bed.

Then, a groggy and drugged Wiggins began to write another note.

"Hey, everything is okay...I just wake up every time your child coughs...I want to pray for your family...So please let us pray for you if she's in bad shape," Wiggins wrote in awkward penmanship before handing off his two-page letter destined for Scarlett's parents.

In bad shape is exactly how medical teams described both Tristan and his roommate at LSU's pediatrics wing. Doctors say Tristan Wiggins' illness, resulting from a combination of viral and bacterial pneumonia, is a case that will probably be published in medical journals—not merely because it's so rare, but because the patient survived it.

"I've worked with people as sick as Tristan, but none who lived," says Randall Wiggins, the 14-year-old's father and a registered nurse for 18 years.

Only days before he wrote to the Johnsons, Tristan Wiggins was himself the subject of worldwide intercessory prayer that spread by email alerts and Facebook posts. Buoyed by that knowledge and his progressive improvement, Tristan believed prayer would work for Scarlett as it had for himself. (Photo via ANS)

Bed-fast and connected to life support, Tristan looked at a bouquet of balloons he'd received as a get-well gift, and asked Jake Johnson to give them to Scarlett.

"I read Tristan's letter and it really touched my heart and brought tears to my eyes," says 29-year-old Jake Johnson, who remembers a nurse telling him and Whitley that Scarlett was within a day or two of her life.

"There were times when we thought we'd lost her," Jake Johnson says of the two-plus week ordeal that began March 5 at Minden Medical Center in Minden, LA. Perplexed by Scarlett's rapidly deteriorating condition, doctors recommended her transfer to LSU Hospital 45-minutes away for more specialized acute care.

Given the dire prognosis, the Johnsons said they would be honored to have Tristan Wiggins pray for their daughter, but they knew only remotely what that meant because his letter was in rough form due to his very serious condition. It mentioned Israel, Jesus, angels and a church in Colorado with 3,000 members.

The Johnsons soon learned that a Jerusalem-based prayer team and intercessors around the world were praying for Scarlett and Tristan because the 14-year-old's uncle, a pastor, had appealed to missionaries in Africa, Asia, Europe, India and South America.