Jonathan Michel, 39, was play wrestling with some friends when a chair hit him in the head. Nobody had any idea that he was bleeding internally until he was found convulsing on the kitchen floor, and after rushing him to the hospital, doctors found that he had suffered a brain aneurism.

Doctors at East Texas Medical Center in Tyler, Texas found that the internal bleeding had caused serious damage to 75% of the left side of his brain. At the time of his injury, Jonathan’s mother Karen was on a mission trip in Africa, but she rushed home to be by his side along with her husband, Wren.

Brain injuries are always unpredictable, and even doctors don’t have definitive answers to what the prognosis might be. Much to everyone’s joy, Jonathan soon began showing signs of life. He woke up and showed signs that he was aware of his surroundings, doing things like fastening and unfastening his niece’s watch and closing his eyes in prayer with the rest of the family.

“We have watched as God has brought him from a state of no hope to a state where he responds to commands, recognizes us and moves about his whole left side and slight movement with his right foot,” Karen wrote on Facebook, also posting a video showing Jonathan displaying signs of life.

Both Karen and her husband knew that God was performing a miracle right before their eyes.

This is why it came as a devastating shock when Karen and Wren received word that doctors were preparing to turn off Jonathan’s life support. While his injury was serious, Jonathan had shown that he was not brain dead, so his parents were baffled why doctors were taking their son off life support. Then doctors told the couple that Jonathan’s long estranged wife had made the decision to turn off the machines that were keeping him alive.

Though Jonathan’s wife left him three years ago, they had been in a long court battle surrounding the custody of their three children, so they were still legally married. After years of being separated from him, the estranged wife showed up at the hospital with her marriage certificate in hand and urged doctors to turn off the machines.

“If I’m ever in such a situation, I want to let nature take its course,” she claimed Jonathan once told her.

There was no way that Jonathan’s parents were going to let their son’s ex-wife get away with this, so Wren did what any devoted father would do: he barred the doors of his son’s hospital room.

“If you’re going to unplug him, you’ll have to go through me,” he told them. Police were even called, but Wren still would not move.

“I would give my life for his,” the father said. “I would rather me die than him.”

Jonathan’s parents bought time by demanding their son’s case go before the Ethic’s Board. Meanwhile, they went public by posting about their situation online, and help poured in by various pro-life people and organizations.

After the Ethics Board reviewed the case, they ruled in favor of Jonathan’s parents.

“They finally called me in to tell me that they were seeing progress,” Wren said, “and as long as they were seeing progress, they were going to continue medical care.”

“We are a long way from winning the battle before us, but with God, I know all things are possible!” Karen added.

Since then, Jonathan has made a lot of progress. While he still has a long road of recovery ahead of him, he has been released from the hospital and is being cared for by his family.

“Our faith is in God. God has spared his life we also have faith that there are others who are capable of helping us care for our son,” Karen said recently. “If God directs you, please pray for Jonathan, and our family as we try to care for his every need. Thank you and God bless you for taking the time to read about our beautiful and only son.”

We applaud these parents for doing whatever it took to save their son’s life!