“GOD HEALED ME” – KAYLEE TURLEY, 5

BY DAN VAN VEEN

“Momma, Momma, my head, my head!” cried 5-year-old Kaylee Turley as she ran to her parents’ room, clutching her head in the early hours of Dec. 30, 2019.

Michele felt her daughter’s head — she was warm. Michele took a water-soaked cloth, softly wiped her daughter’s face, and gave her something for her headache.

After several minutes, Kaylee said she was hungry. Walking into the kitchen, Kaylee suddenly started vomiting and then collapsed. Shortly later, Kaylee roused, threw up again, and then went completely limp.

When they arrived at the emergency room in Fort Smith, Arkansas, the doctors did a CT scan; Kaylee was only slightly responsive. The results came quickly — Kaylee had bleeding on the brain, about one-third of it was already covered.

She was quickly prepped for a helicopter flight to the Little Rock Children’s Hospital.

As Don and Michele’s teenage son, Kayson, drove them to the Fort Smith hospital, Michele was contacting people, including her mother, Sharon Stockton, asking for prayer. Stockton, in turn, called their pastor, Robbie Willis, who quickly drove to the hospital.

Willis, who pastors Lavaca Assembly, knows God answers prayers as he was healed of Parkinson’s disease. The Turleys also know about healing as Don had “terminal” brain cancer several years ago. Meanwhile, the number of people praying continued to swell.

When Michele and Kaylee arrived in Little Rock, Kaylee was immediately admitted into the children’s hospital’s ICU.

The children’s hospital CT scan revealed an answer to prayer — the bleeding had stopped. However, an angiogram revealed that Kaylee had an arteriovenous malformation (AVM) — a tangle of blood vessels connecting arteries and veins in the brain — that had probably been there since birth.

“She couldn’t sit up, she could hardly talk — just mumble — and she had no motion on her right side of her body,” Michele says. “The doctors told me that we were looking at a twomonth in-house physical therapy stay and they would have to do brain surgery to remove the AVM.” swelling reduced, therapists began coming to Kaylee’s room. Little progress was made. Doctors showed Michele the scan that revealed the AVM. Prayers continued.

On Friday, Jan. 2, 2020, a musical therapist caught Kaylee’s attention. But then, something unexpected happened.

“She was suddenly alert,” Michelle recalls. “She began attempting to do stuff with the right side of her body.”

“By early Friday evening, Kylee was walking down the hall with assistance,” Michele says. “By Friday night they moved her out of ICU and into her own private room.”

On Saturday, doctors sent Kaylee home.

“Instead of two months, in less than a week she was home,” Michelle says, still marveling.

“We believe in God and we started praying,” Stockton says. “Every time we’d turn around, the doctors were changing their story . . . about her walking, her memory, how long she’d be in therapy at the hospital . . . I think the people at the hospital were just astonished.”

On Feb. 13, 2020, Kaylee went for her checkup and doctors were amazed at her progress. However, they still believed the AVM required surgery.

As the weeks passed, Kaylee no longer had the urge to be prayed for at church and didn’t want to go to physical therapy.

Kaylee’s reasoning? “Momma, why (go)? Jesus has already healed me.”

Michele communicated that belief to Kaylee’s doctor during the February visit and then again at the rescheduled visit (delayed due to COVID-19) in June 2020.

“He didn’t believe us at all,” Michele recalls. Perhaps not . . . yet.

On June 25, Kaylee went in for her MRI. The doctors could find nothing. An angiogram was scheduled.

“We thought the angiogram was being done in order to see the AVM,” Michele says. “What we didn’t understand was that the doctor doing the angiogram was also going to simultaneously do whatever surgery was needed to remove the AVM and repair the artery in Kaylee’s brain.”

Kaylee was not happy. She didn’t understand the need for surgery — God had healed her. However, the doctors insisted.

On July 27, the doctor began the angiogram/ surgery, but there was nothing to repair. The AVM had disappeared!

“This little girl is a miracle!” Stockton exclaims. “And we give God the glory.”

Michele says the doctor showed her the scans — the first showing the AVM, the new scan showing no sign of any abnormality. He had no explanation.

And when Kaylee was finally wheeled back to the recovery room, Michele told Kaylee the good news that God had healed her, to which Kaylee, a bit exasperated, replied, “I told you, Momma!”

Dan Van Veen is news editor of AG News. He attends Central Assembly of God in Springfield, Missouri, where he teaches 4- and 5-year-old boys and girls.