Courtesy photo

Melanie Pritchard (center), seen here in the hospital with her friends Mark and Tina Henry, is recovering after nearly dying from labor complications.

Local woman makes astonishing recovery after outpouring of prayers

Nationally known pro-life and chastity speaker Melanie Pritchard went into labor July 28 and nearly died from complications.

A healthy baby girl named Gabriella Cecilia was delivered after an emergency c-section, but Pritchard suffered an amniotic embolism and massive internal bleeding. Her heart stopped beating during the delivery, then twice more during a subsequent surgery.  

She was anointed by Fr. John Muir and her family was told to say their goodbyes. Pritchard was slipping away. 

Storming heaven

The news that Pritchard’s heart was failing and that she was in critical condition spread like wildfire across the Internet. E-mails, Facebook posts and “Tweets” multiplied and people all over the country threw themselves into prayer for her recovery. She made the top 100 on Twitter and for days was the top search inquiry on Google in Phoenix.

“Keep up the good fight. Everyone in Minnesota is praying for you,” read one Facebook posting. “I will have everyone at Steubenville Atlantic pray for you,” read another.

When Tina and Mark Henry heard the news about their friend, the couple headed for the hospital, praying the rosary and asking for the intercession of John Paul II. Pritchard has based much of her work on the teachings of the late pontiff.

A prayer vigil was hastily organized and about 100 friends and supporters gathered at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish July 28 to intercede on Pritchard’s behalf. The recently ordained Fr. John Parks -- a longtime friend of Pritchard -- led the congregation in the rosary and the Divine Mercy Chaplet and stayed afterward to hear confessions.

“Melanie has spent her life as an evangelist and a catechist expounding on the teaching of John Paul II,” Fr. Parks said. “So it’s very apropos that he would have a great hand in her healing and that he would be her great intercessor before the Lord. In the end, it shows us the power of prayer and the power of faith.”

Mark Henry agreed. “It’s nothing short of miraculous that she survived,” Henry said. “The degree of prayer that went out there was just amazing -- it was like a cascade of prayer that caught on like a digital wildfire.”
Less than a week later, the woman who has devoted her life to protecting the dignity of women and the unborn was headed home, much to the amazement of hospital staff. 

“She was cracking jokes and seemed to be at the top of her form,” Henry said. His daughter presented Pritchard with a cap that summed up Pritchard’s recovery succinctly: “One Tough Chick.”