The Miracle of Pam Guarino

(based on the account in her mother’s diary)

            It was June 18, 1945.  Marion Guarino was in the delivery room at Nyack Hospital in New York and ready to give birth to her second daughter.  The pregnancy had gone well, but suddenly there were problems with the delivery.  C-sections were not regularly performed in those days.  The doctor and nurses struggled to bring Pamela into the world.

            Marion suddenly felt relief, but there was no noise in the delivery room – no sound, no crying.  Before she could ask, Marion was whisked away from the delivery room to the recovery area.  The doctor and nurses did the best they could to resuscitate Pamela with what little they had in those days, but to no avail.

            Pamela’s body was placed on a table to await post-mortem care while the doctor and nurses went to care for Marion.  Pamela was declared dead.

            Some time later, a nurse returned to prepare Pamela’s body for the undertaker.  Suddenly she realized Pamela was warm, pink, and breathing!  This was impossible!  Pamela had been cold, blue, and unresponsive with no breath for many minutes and now she was alive!

            Marion believed that one of God’s angels had breathed His breath into Pamela when everyone else had given up.  God wanted her to live.

Note by Donna Passarella with whom she now lives:

            Pamela is a true miracle baby.  She has defied the odds.  She learned to walk, talk, and work despite naysayers. In spite of a few developmental disabilities from oxygen depravation, she lives a mostly independent life and is a blessing to all who know her.