The claims
Each entry pairs a reported miracle with the documentary record and an honest, confidence-labeled estimate of how likely it is that no natural explanation accounts for it.
8 claims
2% authentic
Strong natural explanation
Declared brain-dead at 13 after catastrophic bleeding following airway surgery in Oakland, Jahi McMath was kept on support by her family in New Jersey for four and a half years — long enough for a senior neurologist to conclude she no longer met the criteria under which she had been declared dead — before dying of liver failure in 2018, in a case that has become the sharpest stress test the legal definition of brain death has ever received.
Explainedhealing·Children's Hospital Oakland, California, and New Jersey, USA
Jahi McMath — A Family's Challenge to the Definition of Brain Death (2013–2018)
Declared brain-dead at 13 after catastrophic bleeding following airway surgery in Oakland, Jahi McMath was kept on support by her family in New Jersey for four and a half years — long enough for a senior neurologist to conclude she no longer met the criteria under which she had been declared dead — before dying of liver failure in 2018, in a case that has become the sharpest stress test the legal definition of brain death has ever received.
9% authenticProvidence
Strong natural explanation
A 14-year-old submerged in an icy Missouri lake for over 15 minutes had no pulse for roughly 45 minutes of CPR; his heart restarted moments after his mother prayed aloud over him, and he recovered with normal brain function within weeks.
Explainedhealing·Lake St. Louis, Missouri, USA
John Smith — Heart Restarted After 15 Minutes Under a Frozen Lake (2015)
Naturally possible — was the timing more than coincidence?
A 14-year-old submerged in an icy Missouri lake for over 15 minutes had no pulse for roughly 45 minutes of CPR; his heart restarted moments after his mother prayed aloud over him, and he recovered with normal brain function within weeks.
4% authentic
Strong natural explanation
Four days after being struck by a van, 18-year-old Lewis Roberts was declared brain-stem dead and his family consented to organ donation; hours before the retrieval surgery his sister saw breathing activity on his monitor, the declaration was reversed, and he went on to speak, walk miles, and live at home.
Explainedhealing·Leek, Staffordshire / Royal Stoke University Hospital, England, UK
Lewis Roberts — Breathing Hours Before His Organs Were to Be Donated (2021)
Four days after being struck by a van, 18-year-old Lewis Roberts was declared brain-stem dead and his family consented to organ donation; hours before the retrieval surgery his sister saw breathing activity on his monitor, the declaration was reversed, and he went on to speak, walk miles, and live at home.
52% authenticGenuinely uncertain
A Costa Rican lawyer diagnosed with an inoperable brain aneurysm recovered completely after praying to Blessed John Paul II during his beatification broadcast.
Silver · promotablehealing·San José, Costa Rica
Floribeth Mora Díaz: Inoperable Brain Aneurysm Disappears After John Paul II Beatification
A Costa Rican lawyer diagnosed with an inoperable brain aneurysm recovered completely after praying to Blessed John Paul II during his beatification broadcast.
62% authenticResists a natural explanation
An Illinois newborn with no heartbeat for 61 minutes, given up for dead, suddenly revived with no lasting brain damage — proposed as the miracle for Archbishop Fulton Sheen's beatification.
Gold standardhealing·Peoria, Illinois, USA
James Fulton Engstrom: Stillborn 61 Minutes, Full Recovery — Fulton Sheen's Miracle
An Illinois newborn with no heartbeat for 61 minutes, given up for dead, suddenly revived with no lasting brain damage — proposed as the miracle for Archbishop Fulton Sheen's beatification.
47% authenticGenuinely uncertain
A Brazilian man with eight brain abscesses regained consciousness minutes before emergency surgery, which was then found unnecessary — the case credited to Mother Teresa's intercession and used for her canonization.
Silver · promotablehealing·Santos, São Paulo state, Brazil
Marcilio Haddad Andrino: Brain Abscesses Resolve Before Surgery After Mother Teresa Prayer
A Brazilian man with eight brain abscesses regained consciousness minutes before emergency surgery, which was then found unnecessary — the case credited to Mother Teresa's intercession and used for her canonization.
20% authentic
Likely a natural explanation
In 1991, musician Pam Reynolds accurately described surgical instruments and procedures during a hypothermic cardiac standstill in which she was clinically brain-dead, making her case the most scrutinized veridical near-death experience in the medical literature.
Explainedapparition·Barrow Neurological Institute, Phoenix, Arizona, USA
Pam Reynolds: Veridical NDE During Brain Surgery
In 1991, musician Pam Reynolds accurately described surgical instruments and procedures during a hypothermic cardiac standstill in which she was clinically brain-dead, making her case the most scrutinized veridical near-death experience in the medical literature.
47% authentic
Genuinely uncertain
A Costa Rican student's life-threatening cranial injuries and brain bruising disappeared without trace two months after a bicycle accident in Florence — the miracle for Carlo Acutis's canonization.
Bronze · contestedhealing·Florence / Assisi, Italy (patient from Costa Rica)
Valeria Valverde: Severe Brain Trauma Resolves After Pilgrimage to Carlo Acutis Tomb
A Costa Rican student's life-threatening cranial injuries and brain bruising disappeared without trace two months after a bicycle accident in Florence — the miracle for Carlo Acutis's canonization.