by Clem Boyd, Communication Content Manager
Dr. Michael McKay teaches about miracles in his classes for the School of Biblical and Theological Studies at Cedarville. But for this assistant professor of biblical theology, one of the greatest miracles is that he is teaching at all.
By all rights, Michael shouldn’t be at Cedarville this fall. On a Saturday morning in June, McKay got out of bed not feeling quite right. He figured it was just a few odd aches and pains that he could remedy by moving around a bit and having breakfast with his wife, Lee-Ann, an administrative assistant in the department of history and government.
But when his left leg went numb, they both knew something big was happening that a lovely morning meal wouldn’t solve.
They drove immediately to Greene Memorial Hospital in Xenia, Ohio, suspecting that Michael was having a stroke. But after a CT scan of his chest, doctors saw that he had a dissected aorta, a very serious health emergency. Most with the condition don’t even make it to the hospital.
Michael was taken by ambulance to Kettering Medical Center in Kettering, Ohio, for emergency surgery. After 10 ½ hours in the operating room with cardiothoracic surgeon Dr. Peter Pavlina and his team, along with the constant prayers of friends, family, and church family here and all around the world, Dr. McKay came out repaired and changed.
"By all the statistics, I should be dead," he explained to Cedarville University public relations. "This is why the doctors said it’s a miracle. Every medical professional in my family or who is a friend of mine, when they heard what happened before they heard about the success of the surgery, many of them told me they did not think they would have seen me again until the presence of the Lord.
"I’m in the bonus round."
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More to the Story
Dr. McKay was last a guest on the Cedarville Stories podcast in February 2020. He shared then about training Russian church leaders and visiting the Holy Lands with Cedarville students, including his children, Alexis, Andrew, and Katherynn.