 |
| Blessed Kateri Photograph by Loci B. Lenar |
KOMO News: Vatican investigating possible miracle in Washington state
The following excerpt is from KomoNews.com:
FERNDALE, Wash. - The Vatican is investigating a possible miracle right in Washington state.
Doctors at Children's Hospital worked miracles five years ago to save a young boy's life. But now the pope wants to know if more than medicine played a role.
To look at him today, nobody would guess Jake Finkbonner nearly died.
"He was as sick as any case ever seen," says Dr. Craig Rubens.
In the last minute of the last game of his 2006 season, Jake cut his lip.
"I fell down and hit my lip on the base of the basketball hoop," he says.
A flesh-eating bacteria raced through his lip and devoured his face. Now 11 years old, Jake recalls the day he died.
"I went and saw God up in heaven, and it was so beautiful I asked if I could stay. And he refused to let me stay - said my family needed me here on earth," Jake remembers.
His mother, Elsa Finkbonner, says, "That was his day in heaven, our day in hell."
Surgeons couldn't stay ahead of the fast-spreading infection.
"It got to the point where we called in a priest to give his last rites," says Jake's mother.
 |
| Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha Photograph by Loci B. Lenar |
Father Tim Sauer urged the Finkbonner family to pray for the intercession of Blessed Kateri, a Native American who converted to Catholicism. Smallpox scarred her face, and legend claims the scars disappeared when she died.
Kateri is now in the early stages of sainthood.
The day a friend named Kateri visited the Finkbonners, they gave them a relic of the blessed Kateri that the family placed on their son's hospital bed. It's the same day Jake's school prayed for him, and it's the same day his disease stopped.
"If it's a coincidence - wow," says Jake's mother.
"I think it's a matter of a miracle," says Jake.
The Vatican is investigating whether Kateri should become a saint and sent an investigative team from Rome to question Jake's family.
"We've given them everything," says Elsa. "They've spoken with all of our family friends and priests."
Read more: Jake Finkbonner
