In a remarkable and heartwarming tale, a three-year-old girl from Ohio, Zola, left her parents awestruck with her account of a near-death experience, during which she claims to have spoken to Jesus.
The extraordinary journey began when Brittani Tomic, Zola’s mother, was roused from her sleep one fateful night by her daughter’s unexpected and unsettling presence. Zola entered her parents’ bedroom with bloodied lips, a sight that immediately triggered alarm bells in Tomic’s mind.
Zola had recently undergone a tonsillectomy, and her mother, fearing the worst, immediately dialed 911 and rushed her to the hospital. However, it wasn’t until the child was whisked away into surgery that the true gravity of the situation began to set in for Tomic.
Zola had been plagued by seizures since the tender age of two, initially leaving doctors puzzled and suspecting sleep apnea—a condition characterized by recurrent interruptions in breathing during sleep. Concerned about their daughter’s well-being, Zola’s parents sought the expertise of a specialist in head and neck conditions.
It was during this consultation that Zola’s parents received the sobering news that their daughter’s enlarged tonsils posed a potential obstruction to her breathing, necessitating surgical intervention. Brimming with optimism, Tomic and her husband believed this procedure would be the key to putting an end to Zola’s seizures and medical woes.
“We were confident. We felt like this was going to be the end of all of her seizures and the medical issues. This is going to be the surgery to fix everything,” Tomic shared.
However, fate had other plans, and just over a week following the tonsillectomy, Zola once again ventured into her parents’ room, her mouth stained with blood. It was a harrowing sight that would lead to a life-saving intervention—an urgent blood transfusion.
Subsequent to the transfusion, medical professionals were able to diagnose Zola with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, an exceedingly rare condition characterized by hyper-flexible joints and fragile, stretchy skin. While there is currently no cure for Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, patients can employ various management strategies such as physical therapy and counseling.
Describing the condition, Tomic explained, “They bruise easy. It’s a lot of pain, a lot of fatigue. What I tell people is that the condition itself is not life-threatening, but it has a lot of life-threatening complications.”
Months after the life-altering incident, Tomic was given a glimpse into her daughter’s extraordinary experience on the night she came perilously close to death.
“It’s something even to this day that I still can’t even comprehend,” Tomic recounted. “I was getting her ready, and it wasn’t even like we were talking about anything God-related beforehand; we were just getting ready to go to gymnastics. And she just asked, ‘When can I see God again?’”
