The Winning Ticket

It's a Miracle 3: Extraordinary Real-Life Stories Based on the PAX TV Series It's a Miracle
by Richard Thomas

Hope and comfort when you need it most ...

Dozens of real-life inspirational tales from the tv show that has touched the heart of America.

Here are true stories of wonder and joy to lift your spirits and get you through tough times ... stories to celebrate and offer comfort when you need a little inspiration. In this wonderful third volume of miraculous stories, Richard Thomas, host of PAX TV's crowd-pleasing series It's a Miracle, has selected dozens of all-new stories. Each will touch your soul and strengthen your spirit.

A pregnant woman's baby is saved by an amazing encounter with two "angels" on earth ... A firefighter gives a remarkable gift to the buddy who saved his life - and sets off a chain reaction of miracles ... A son's tragic loss leads to a joyous reunion with the mother who gave him up for adoption thirty-eight years before.

Answered prayers ... divine intervention ... miraculous rescues ... inspiring reunions... heartwarming animal stories ... remarkable medical recoveries. They're all here and more in a book that is a true testament to the human spirit--a reading experience that is eye-opening, heartrending, and impossible to forget.

Sandy Rish came to the United States from Taiwan when she was twenty-one. Through hard work and determination, she eventually achieved the American dream: owning her own business in a small community just outside Los Angeles.

"I have a little coffee shop next to the Amtrak station in the city of Fullerton," says Sandy. "We cater mostly to the commuters and Amtrak people."

Over the years, Sandy became good friends with two Fullerton police officers who patrol the station, Sergeant Fred Casas and Senior Police Officer Bill Wallis.

"We've kind of adopted the restaurant as our unofficial substation," says Fred. "Sandy's kind of a jokester herself, and she can put up with a bunch of rowdy cops."

"I see her on a daily basis when I'm working," concurs Bill. "She's more than a friend, almost like a sister."

Besides meals, Sandy's cafe dispensed coffee, snacks, and lottery tickets. She managed to earn a modest income until 1998, when months of unusually heavy rain washed out sections of the track.

"My business is dependent on the trains," says Sandy. "Some days I went three, four days without a train. If nobody takes the train, I don't have any business."

Going over her bills at night, Sandy realized that something had to go."I've got to do something about the budget," she said, "but I don't know what to cut back."

One of her employees offered to cut down on hours, but Sandy said no, she needed the help at the cafe.

"The first thing I thought was, Well, I'm in good health. I don't even catch colds," says Sandy. "You know, nothing."And so, Sandy canceled her health insurance. She just couldn't afford it.

"I work eighty, ninety hours a week," Sandy states. "Out of the nine kids in my family, I'm the toughest one. And nobody ever thought anything was going to happen to me."

But a few months later, Sandy suddenly fell ill.

"When I woke up, I thought, I feel kind of funny in my stomach and my leg," Sandy recalls. "It was like having a charley horse in your leg. That's what my whole body felt like."

But Sandy went into work as usual. She checked the cafe refrigerator and made a grocery list.

"I'm going to go shopping, guys, see you in a little bit," she said.

She was on her way to the produce market when Bill and Fred walked in.

"Hey, you're late," she teased them."And they said, 'Oh, come on, have a cup of coffee with us. It's Saturday; you don't have to rush."

Sandy says."No, no, no. I've got to go. I have work to do," she told them."No, you can't go shopping without a little," Fred insisted.

"So I said all right," says Sandy. "Thank God they invited me to sit down, because I would have been out on the street somewhere."

"As we talked, she suddenly reached her hand over the table, and touched me on the arm," recalls Fred, "and at the same time, started to lean back in her chair.""Oh, God, here it comes again," Sandy said."Almost immediately, she got a really contorted look on her face, and she went board stiff," Fred says.

Sandy was having a seizure.

"Got her, got her. Move the chair, set her down," Fred directed. He and Bill helped Sandy to the ground.

"Lock the door and get everybody out."

"Cristobal, the cook who was on duty, started closing up the doors to the restaurant so we wouldn't get a crowd," says Fred. "I immediately got on my radio and requested paramedics to respond." "I've got vitals on her; I've got breathing," Fred told them.

"Sandy, you're going to be okay," Bill said.

"It was just a matter of minutes, probably less than two minutes, until the paramedics responded," Fred recounts.

"Sandy, can you hear me?" he asked her. "We're right here, hon. Okay?"

"The medics are on their way. Just relax," Bill told her."She had no idea where she was; she didn't know who we were," Bill says.

"That was frightening. You know somebody, and you spend the day before with them, and the next thing you know, boom! they're down for the count and there's not much you can do."

"To be quite honest, it scared the hell out of me," admits Fred. "I've known Sandy for a number of years and she's a good friend of mine, somebody that my family knows. I felt really helpless."

Sandy was rushed to the hospital, where a battery of tests revealed the problem. And the diagnosis could not have been worse.

"I had a tumor," says Sandy, "that grew into the main nerve in my brain, where they had to get it out. Otherwise, I'd die."

The tumor was not malignant, but the prognosis was not good. She would need immediate surgery and intensive medical attention for the rest of her life. The neurosurgeon called in on her case was Dr. McGee.

"He told me I was going to die anyway, because it's one of those types of tumors that would be recurrent. But we don't know when it will reoccur," Sandy says.

"The tumor was benign, but if it stayed there, I wouldn't be alive. So we had to get the tumor out.I was in shock," she admits "My life had just begun. My kids were all grown and I was just having fun. I had my business and I was doing what I wanted to do, and when something like that happened, I thought, Well, I'm getting punished for something, I don't know what.

"But then I found out how many friends I have, from this illness," Sandy says. Bill and Fred, for example, came by her room, bringing balloons and flowers.Within days, Sandy underwent five hours of brain surgery in an attempt to remove the tumor."The next thing I knew," Sandy says, "when I woke up, they told me that the tumor was out and the doctor was very happy with his operation. And I figured, Well, the doctor's happy, so I'll be happy too."

"They were able to remove the majority of the tumor," Bill elaborates, "however, there was a portion of it remaining, and they would try to treat that with chemotherapy, radiation."

Sandy was moved out of the intensive care unit and into a regular hospital room.

"Everybody was in shock, how I recovered and everything," says Sandy. "Every doctor was really, really shocked. Really happy with my recovery."

"She did eventually recuperate to the point where she'd get out of bed, and she was walking," recalls Fred.

"I talked to the physical therapists," Bill says, "and they were amazed how she was leaps and bounds over other patients they've seen with the same affliction. It was pretty amazing."

Fred and Bill visited Sandy often, to help keep up her spirits.

"Fred and I told her that we made some suggestions to the doctors of what things to take out and other portions of her brain that quite possibly could improve her," Bill joked.

Copyright © 2003 by Selected and introduced by Richard Thomas.