FROM TRAGEDY TO TRIUMPH
[6-minute read]
Who in their right mind would ever volunteer to be stricken by cancer or a disorder that won’t respond to treatment? Who is ever prepared for unprovoked attacks or freak accidents? But when they happen (to us or someone close), we come face to face with our own frailty and mortality. Our response determines how quickly we descend into the rabbit hole of despair.
When we recover from physical injuries and illnesses, we are relieved to see that our bodies have returned to their normal state. But what if they also signal a change in the areas of our lives that are invisible and often hidden beneath our consciousness. Think of unchecked habits that seem innocuous at the time like the dopamine rush of overachievers, or the propensity of high-functioning individuals to downplay warnings of health and safety risks from loved ones.
But when recovery is prolonged and improvements are slow, we are forced to look beyond our physical and functional limitations to something that remains untouched by illness and injury – our connection to a merciful God. For the Bible tells us, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?... No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” (Romans 8:35, 37).
Sajeeth’s Story
Seven months ago, I was flung out of my motorbike like a rag doll, landing in a broken mess from head to toe. My young son, Colton, knelt at the kerbside and cried out to God. Out of nowhere, a woman appeared and prayed with him for my life. (We never knew who she was and never saw her again.) All my ribs were broken but miraculously, none pierced my organs.
The immediate aftermath
My wife, Priya, who was following my motorbike in a car with Colton, witnessed the entire scene. She remained calm and called friends who were at the party we had just left. They arrived on the scene shortly and did all they could to minimize the injury while waiting for the paramedics to arrive. I was out cold for 8 seconds.
The medical reality
Deep vein thrombosis could easily block blood flow and be life-threatening. On top of that, 20 ribs were broken. In emergency medicine, the prognosis for such extensive injuries typically presents the worst-case scenarios. I should not have lived beyond 4 minutes. The pain level was said to rival that of 20 childbirths. There were six doctors working on me and I was in coma for 16 days.
The hard truth
I would have greater certainty if the doctors told me that I would surely die. Ironically, they could only say, We’ll see. Due to the severity of my injuries, I was immobilized for 24 hours a day. I could not bring myself to imagine a future in this state. Nothing made sense: I felt that I had always obeyed God - moving from India to Singapore and then to the US - what did I do wrong? What happened to God’s visions and calling I thought I was living out? I had never been in this conundrum before.
But I sensed God saying, ‘I’m not done with you.’ No explanation. No ego-boosting assurances. But there was something comforting and reassuring about God’s response that was hard to explain. So instead of looking at the distance, I started focusing on progress. After 40 days, I started getting back on my feet. The normal rehabilitative journey would usually take up to 2 years but my recovery consistently defied all expectations. Because God revealed that He was not done with me yet, I pushed myself to do physiotherapy five days a week. Barely six months after the accident, I was back in church to testify.
Looking back, I was a metaphorical ‘dry bone’ that the doctors saw - devoid of life and functionality. But like how the prophet Ezekiel saw dry bones come to life in Ezekiel 37:1-14, broken nerves and veins began to reconnect on their own after the operation.
“Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord!... Prophesy to the breath… and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live… I will put my Spirit in you and you will live…’. It’s now seven months since the accident and I’m driving on my own.
What do you think God is saying to you personally through all this?
I always thought I would not live past my 40s and this feels to me like a divine second chance. I had the chance to speak to the distinguished neurosurgeon, Dr Anil Nanda, who wanted to know more about my recovery. He had ordered multiple tests to be done, and eventually started calling me the ‘miracle man’.
Though not a believer, Dr Nanda concluded in his report that what he saw was ‘a miraculous Lazarus type recovery’, and ‘I am very pleased by his miraculous recovery’. When he heard that my son, Colton, had immediately spoken in tongues during the 8 seconds that I was unconscious, he became curious and researched on the topic. He asked me out for coffee to know more about speaking in tongues.
Comments from BeInReach
Sajeeth’s experience shows us that during the time that he was immobilized by his injuries, the truth is that “God’s word is not bound” (2 Timothy 2:9 ESV). It tells us that God is real and He responds to us.
“The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them; He delivers them from all their troubles. The Lord is close to the broken-hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. The righteous person may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all; He protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken.” (Psalm 34:17-20).
Sajeeth moved from under the ‘medical gaze’ of doctors (a term coined by sociologist Foucault) to the Lordship of our Miracle God. Even the medical discourse could not ignore his subjective experience of God’s power and promises. Each breath he laboured in pain while in critical care demonstrated his response to God’s whisper, ‘I’m not done with you’.
It certainly brings to mind what Isaiah 26:3-4 wrote, “You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord himself, is the Rock eternal.”
Sajeeth concluded his story with this advice: ‘Dry bones’ mean different things to different people. We all have some sort of dry bone situation - something in our lives that has not changed and been lifeless for longer than it should. But until and unless God says so, everything has the potential to change. No situation in life is a dead bone to God. And that dry bone situation in your life will and can return to life.
Keep praying and declare prophetically what God will do in your situation. Do not give up!
This is a summary and reflection based on a virtual BIR Session held on 7 March 2026.
