My sister, Lori, has Huntington’s Disease, with symptoms farther along than mine. On May 19, 2024, she had a massive cardiac arrest—not caused by HD, but a contributing factor to what happened. Her husband, Andrés gave her CPR, but she ended up without oxygen for over 10 minutes, meaning she was clinically dead. They hooked her up to machines and used IV’s to keep her body functions going, but she had no organized brain activity. They said they could maintain her that way for 14 days. Given this deadline, Andrés was planning to have her taken off the machines with hopes and prayers she would be able to breathe on her own, yet fully aware of the doctors' dim prognosis she would be able to survive. But he waited for their daughter to arrive from her home in Italy. We prayed that God would take Lori quickly. Marisela arrived on day 3. She was adamant that they needed to go the full 14 days. She said we needed to be praying for a miracle. We started praying for God to do something dramatic, anything! On day 12 God did something dramatic: Lori woke up. She began breathing on her own. She tried to talk. She opened her eyes. She could obey some simple commands. 13 weeks later she was walking, recognizing people most of the time, and feeding herself. She was dead and now she’s alive!
Totally Unexpected Performance with Her Three Siblings
Eventually, Lori was moved to a memory care unit, where she was making slow progress. In March 2025, Lynelle, Brad, and I travelled to Highland Park (north of Chicago) to visit with her. To our surprise, she recognized us, smiled, and when we asked if she wanted to sing a song with us around the piano in foyer, she said, “Yes!” We had low expectations for what would happen, so were floored when she joined our sibling quartet, singing a song she had written for the family in 1991. She remembered almost everything, and sang on pitch, telling us to do things better. Wow!
Brad, Lynelle, and I were truly flabbergasted, experiencing deep emotional healing...and maybe, Lori?