http://english.pravda.ru/society/stories/02-11-2007/100086-blind_boy-0 02.11.2007 Blind boy sees light again after baptism in Russia
In the Russian city of Krasnoyarsk a baby born blind saw the light after he was baptized. Vanya Kutashevsky was born with serious traumas, and neonatal pediatricians recommended the mother to abandon the baby. They said that the boy would never walk and talk. They added that the baby was blind as he was diagnosed with optic atrophy. The young woman quite naturally had a fit of hysterics because of the terrible recommendations. She said she would never leave the son in an orphanage. Blind boy sees light again after baptism in Russia The mother devoted all of her efforts to upbringing the son. Every morning she did cold shower for the boy and massaged his body which eventually made him stronger and Vanya learnt to crawl and then stood up. But unfortunately all eye-sight checkups revealed that the boy was blind and would not see the light. The boy's mother Natasha had no close person to rely on: she was divorced and had no relatives. Once in a moment of utter despair the young woman came to an Orthodox temple next door. She told the parson everything about her difficult life, and the clergyman said the life of the woman and her child would be easier if both baptized. But Natasha had no money to pay for christening as the whole of the son's disability pension was spent on food. The priest was very kind to conduct the ceremony for the poor woman and her son for free. Starting with that day Natasha and her son Vanya became steady parishioners of the temple. Each time she went to the church the young woman prayed for recovery of the son's sight. Natasha tells that one day a real miracle occurred to her boy. She was cooking meals in the kitchen and Vanya was playing toys in an adjoining room supervised by Natasha's sister. Suddenly the mother heard the son laughing and dropped into his room to see what was going on there. Natasha saw the boy standing in the beam of sunlight and trying to catch specks of dust with his hands. It was incredible that the boy whom doctors diagnosed as blind could see the tiny specks of dust. When next day the mother took Vanya to an oculist the doctor had to invite more physicians for consultation, and all of them examined the boy's eyes and eyesight with a special medical apparatus. As a result the doctors declared that the boy's eyesight was miraculously restoring. In several months, Vanya had absolute eyesight. Natasha thinks that the miracle occurred because neither she nor the son would give up. She loves the son very much and the boy feels that the mother's love protects him. Now the woman is perfectly sure that together with the son they will cope with all problems in life. A clergyman from Krasnoyarsk comments upon the miraculous event and says that such things do happen sometimes. He tells that once he baptized a patient in a hospital whom doctors considered to be unable to walk. But one day the priest saw the man walk to the church without any assistance! So, it is highly likely that people's will and faith in God and their own possibilities may work miracles and help recover even from very serious diseases. However, ophthalmologists are very skeptical about such miraculous recovery stories. They say that a baby born blind will never restore eyesight. As for this particular instance, it is not ruled out that doctors misdiagnosed the baby immediately after his birth. It sometimes happens that patients with partial optic atrophy may have their eyesight improved in the course of time. The story actually sounds miraculous and incredible, but it is wonderful that this incredible miracle has given a better life to the boy. Translated by Maria Gousseva Pravda.ru
