The miracle of Libby Claire

LAKE WYLIE, S.C. Libby Claire McGarity toddled down the aisle at River Hills Community Church last Sunday to a standing ovation.

Libby Claire, 31 inches tall and 21 months old, began clapping, too. Her mother and father, who is a minister at the church, lifted her up when they got to the sanctuary. Libby Claire rested her hands on the lectern the way she had seen her daddy do it, looked out at the congregation and said:

“Hi!”

Matt and Elizabeth McGarity never imagined five weeks ago they would return to their church in celebration. They feared it would be for Libby Claire's funeral.

She fell from a loft at a beach house in Longboat Key, Fla., on July 10, taking the impact on the front of her skull and brain. Doctors at All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg, where she was airlifted, warned Matt and Elizabeth to prepare for the worst. Her skull had cut an artery in her brain. She had lost so much blood and her heart was so weak, they would operate without anesthesia.

This is going to be very risky, Matt remembers one doctor saying. If she dies on the operating table….

Matt heard nothing else the doctor said, only those words: If she dies on the operating table….

Matt and Elizabeth prayed. They prayed God would guide the surgeon's hands. They prayed God would strengthen Libby Claire's body, hold her when they couldn't and whisper words of comfort.

Once during surgery, and once after, they said, Libby Claire nearly died. The swelling in her brain was so severe, doctors put her into a coma.

“You find yourself staring over her bed,” Matt said, “staring at her, watching the numbers.”

And wondering: Would she ever wake?

A test of faith

A week before the accident, before they drove south to Florida for vacation with their four children, before all their lives changed, Matt had preached the Sunday morning sermon at River Hills Community Church. He spoke from Matthew 7:24, about a wise man who built his house on a rock foundation.

Storms, Matt preached, will come to test the foundations of our lives and will reveal whether a person's faith is built on rock or on sand.

Libby Claire's accident was the first real test of Matt's and Elizabeth's faith. Matt is 31. Elizabeth is 29 and expecting their fifth child. They both grew up in Charlotte and have been married 10 years.

“I always felt that if something traumatic happened to my children, I would falter and question God and wonder how this could happen to an innocent child,” Elizabeth said. “But it really has amazed me, the presence of God literally uplifting us. It has changed our faith and made it deeper.”

Every morning in the hospital, they chose a different Bible verse. Psalm 121:7-8. Joshua 1-9. Psalm 91.

Back home, friends and strangers prayed for Libby Claire. The Rev. Bruce Jones, senior pastor at River Hills Community Church, said the accident united parishioners in a way nothing else has. If you drive through Fort Mill and Clover, S.C., the pink ribbons you'll see on mailboxes and front porches are for Libby Claire. Around the world, people discovered her Web site and prayed.

Learning to receive

In the weeks following the accident, Matt and Elizabeth learned how to receive rather than give.

“We hope that no one ever has to go through a traumatic experience like this,” Elizabeth said, “but I wish that everyone could feel the outpouring of love.”

The accident made them aware on a deeper, more intimate level what parents go through when a child is hurt. Matt has often given blood, but now when he gives it he will think of the 11 strangers who donated the 11 pints of blood that kept Libby Claire alive. He said he will always put money in the collection box to support the Ronald McDonald houses where families can stay when they have a child in an out-of-town hospital.

And when Matt and Elizabeth minister to families, they said, they will better understand the pain.

“We know how the ambulance ride feels, how the medevac feels, how the surgery feels, how the waiting feels,” Elizabeth said. “We have a whole new heart for people with sick and injured children.”

Counting the days

The sixth day after surgery, doctors began slowly lifting Libby Claire from her coma.

On the ninth day, Elizabeth and Matt got to hold her, still so medicated she didn't seem like their little girl.

The neurosurgeon delivered good news on the 10th day: Libby Claire was pulling through. He didn't expect lingering problems. Matt said the surgeon told them she would have withdrawal symptoms and struggle to learn how to sit up, move and talk again. It might take a year. She would need one more surgery, to replace a piece of skull removed when her brain became so swollen.

A medevac plane flew them on the 15th day, July 24, to Levine Children's Hospital in Charlotte.

On the 18th day, Libby Claire smiled.

The next morning, she smiled with her whole body: She shrugged her shoulders, squinted her eyes and opened her mouth in a wide grin.

On July 30, the 21st day, Matt and Elizabeth took her home.

The return of Libby Claire

Each day since, a different piece of Libby Claire emerged, surprising Matt and Elizabeth and confounding her caregivers. Her eyes sparkled. She walked. She climbed onto her plastic push-car. The next day, she rode around on it. Thursday, she ran for the first time.

“I've talked about miracles in life, and there's no other way to explain this,” Matt said. “Oftentimes we seem to always look for the supernatural. I think God also works miracles through his people, through medicine, and it's not always that flash of lightning. Sometimes we underestimate what a miracle truly is. I think we need to stop and see the miracles that happen every day.”

As Matt and Elizabeth held Libby Claire aloft last Sunday before the congregation, Matt declared:

“Behold a miracle!”