May 18, 2006. It had been three days since Diane Pinkins’ husband, Ron, brought their only daughter, Rita, to the ER at Ascension St. Vincent hospital in Indianapolis.
The 27-year-old single mother of four had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of leukemia. Now she was in a critical care unit fighting for her life.
“It was very devastating. Prayer was just the constant thing that held us all together,” Diane recalls.
While on chemotherapy, Rita continued to deteriorate and ten days later was on life support. During that time, she coded twice and developed a blood clotting disorder that caused internal and external bleeding.
“It was so scary. She was bleeding from her eyes, from her nose, her ears, from everywhere. They were unable to stop the bleeding. Things were not going in the direction that I would want them to go. It was very devastating.”
The news only got worse. Rita’s oncologist told Diane that her daughter needed a plasma infusion to replenish the platelets that would help her blood clot. Without it, she would bleed to death. Finding a match, however, would take time, and Diane and Ron were not matches.
Diane was distraught. “The doctor just said, there’s nothing else she can do. I just felt so out of control. I just broke down, I had fallen to my knees and was just praying, that God would forgive me for thinking that I had any control over anything. And then I asked that I would be able to accept whatever his will was gracefully, that I would be given a word as to what God’s will was, whether we are losing her or whether she’s gonna make it through.”
Diane and Ron weren’t alone. From the start Diane had gotten word out for people to pray – and it had spread.
“Previously the prayer had been, just pray for us, we need prayer,” says Diane. ‘“But then it changed, and I was like, ‘I need everybody to pray for a complete divine healing.’ The prayer lines were not only locally and nationally, but they were international.’”
People did more than just pray– they showed up to donate plasma when a local radio station organized a blood drive for Rita.
“That was mind boggling, the people that got involved. The blood center downtown said they had never seen the influx of people coming in to donate plasma like they had with Rita.”
When the drive ended, they’d found a donor match and Rita got the platelets she needed. The bleeding stopped and one week after going into the ICU, Rita was taken off life support. She continued to improve, was eventually released and declared in remission… for now.
“My prayers were that God would just save me. I never even asked for healing,” Rita recalls. ‘“I remember a moment where God said, ‘I’m giving you my blood.’ And I believe that God was the anonymous donor. I was so excited. I was so grateful; I was so happy. I was just in disbelief; I was just in awe.’”
Rita was sent home with dozens of medications for maintenance and to kill any remaining cancer cells. Then, about a week after she came home, she says she heard from God.
“‘Right when I started to take it, he said, ‘Let this be the last time you take the medicine. No more medicine, you’re healed.’ So, I stopped at that point. I was very, very adamant, about not taking it because I heard his voice so clearly that there was no doubt, no doubt at all.’”
For Rita and her family, it would become a journey of faith. Because a year later, in November 2007, the cancer was back and had spread. Rita was readmitted to the hospital for treatment.
“I didn’t understand why it came back at the time, but I knew for a fact that God said I was healed. I never questioned God. I never asked him why. I just went through the process and trusted him. My faith never wavered. My relationship with God was a lot different this time around. And I remember laying hands on myself and praying. I experienced what he did for me. I knew that he could heal me.”
Diane agreed. “It was not good news by any means, but we were not defeated. We had had a word from God. We thought, well, this has to just be a test. The odds were completely against us, but we had God.”
Rita went through more radiation, chemotherapy and experimental drugs. Nothing seemed to be working.
“I remember the doctors telling me that there was nothing that they could do,” Rita remembers. “They’ve tried everything and there’s nothing that they could do. And that is the point where I felt the most relief because I knew that now it’s out of their hands and in God’s.”
Then, after 4 months of treatments and prayer, Rita was again declared in remission. On March 25, 2008, Rita was released from the hospital and the next Sunday in church, there was a celebration.
“That was the most glorious day, even though in our minds we knew it was gonna happen. It was God’s time,” Diane recalls.
Rita has been cancer-free for over sixteen years. Since then, she’s remarried, had another son and is more active than ever, working three jobs and constantly volunteering to help those less fortunate.
“My faith before was mustard seed faith, but that’s all that it was,” Rita claims. “My faith now is mountain top faith. I believe God can do anything.”
“God is still performing those biblical proportion miracles today,” Diane declares. “He hears the voice of the masses, and he hears the voice of one. And if we would just humble ourselves and submit, then everybody can experience great things. I just want people to know that his love and his power, his omnipotence is real. It is so real.”
“Know that God is with you; you’re never alone,” Rita agrees. “There’s nothing that he can’t do.”
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