Sid Roth - My Son Drowned. Then Something Amazing Happened with Ella Brunt
Her six-year-old who had irreversible brain damage with only one percent chance of survival was miraculously healed. Next on this edition of It's Supernatural!
Sid Roth: Hello. I'm Sid Roth your investigative reporter. My guest is Ella Brunt. Ella is just a normal housewife and she goes on a sailboat, and all of a sudden tragedy of tragedies. Her six-year-old son falls overboard. What happened, Ella? Did the boat itself capsize?
Ella Brunt: We were out and a gust of wind just caught the boat, and it was on Cody's side that the boat tilted over. My nephew was just putting up the keel in the front and the main sail was up, so that divided us, it separated us, and he grabbed my daughter Brittany and gave her to me. But then as the boat tipped over, Cody was - I just thought he would swim out, but he didn't. He somehow stayed in the boat. And as he was grasping the ropes would - there were some extra ropes in there and actually attached him to the boat.
Sid Roth: Under the water.
Ella Brunt: Under the water.
Sid Roth: That's awful. Did your nephew or you just dive over and go try to get him?
Ella Brunt: My nephew immediately started diving to find him because we knew he could swim, but he never came up, and so I was holding on to my daughter.
Sid Roth: How old was she?
Ella Brunt: She was eight.
Sid Roth: Okay.
Ella Brunt: And so after a while, and he didn't come up, I said, "Brittany, we need to pray because Cody is in trouble". And so Wallace kept diving for him.
Sid Roth: But you're the mother. You must have panicked.
Ella Brunt: Okay. You know, there was a specific time in that time to where knowing that my son was hurt, I couldn't get to him, and there was a choice I had to make. I had to either allow the emotions that were already in there just rising and building up to just totally get frantic and get emotionally upset like any mother would do, or I could choose that this is out of my hands and I'm going to have to trust God because I can't do it in my own power.
Sid Roth: How in the world did you get so spiritual? I mean, this is so emotional. I can picture if my child that had happened to or if your child that had happened to. It must have been almost a miracle that you could have realized your only hope was God at that time.
Ella Brunt: Right. It was, and it was definitely a choice. You know, I could choose to get emotional, but I knew that I had to say, “Okay, this is not of God. I know God doesn't cause accidents and tragedy”, and I had to know that deep down in my heart. And I said, you know, this is an attack of the devil, and I will not allow the devil to steal my child. And it was just - it was a conscious decision that I made. I knew I made it.
Sid Roth: So your nephew goes after your son Cody, your six-year-old, and what happened?
Ella Brunt: And he was working, we weren't talking; it's like time stood still. There was jet skiers out on the lake that day. There was a lot of activity around us. But in my own little world this was all that was going on. He was searching for him. All I could do was grab onto my daughter and not let her go, even though she had a lifejacket on. I know Brittany - Cody had a lifejacket on. And I said, "Brittany, we just got to pray and believe God to help us". And so there was five-minutes or so before anybody even came to assist us. I said - there was a jet skier that came by, and I said, "Please take my daughter to the dock and bring help. My son is underneath the boat and we can't get him out". And so there was time, you know, transition time. So it was a total of like ten minutes or so before we got help came. And whenever they got Cody up out of the water, he was just limp. He was just hanging on my nephew's shoulder, blue, just a limp dishrag.
Sid Roth: Was he breathing at all?
Ella Brunt: No. And there was an off-duty police officer that came and assisted him to get him untied from the ropes. And at the time the lifejacket was way down on his knees, and I thought, well that's odd. Why, you know, what is this? So a boat came by because the jet ski was - it kept stalling out and it wouldn't bring him back. And so a boat came by, and they put Cody on the boat, and it was just - it was miraculously - it had a flat front to it to where they could just lay Cody there and start CPR. He had no pulse. He had no, he was not breathing. They administered CPR and they started, you know, breathing for him and getting him back to the dock, and that was just a God-send in itself. You know, that was a couple of minutes that were vital to get him back to the dock.
Sid Roth: But ten minutes underwater - I’m not a medical person, but I don't see how you could even live.
Ella Brunt: Well he didn't. He died. He drowned.
Sid Roth: How do you know?
Ella Brunt: Well because, you know, he was dead and in the water. As all this was transpiring I saw this vision or whatever you want to say, but it was Cody in a casket, and we were having his funeral, and it was just Ted my husband and me, and Brittany walking through life together, that Cody was gone. And I just purposely said, “No, devil. You are not going to steal my son.”
Sid Roth: But medically, how do you know your son was dead?
Ella Brunt: Medically, because the paramedics, whenever they got him to the dock they had called Life Flight in and then the ground paramedics actually came over from NASA. They're in Houston in Clear Lake. And this was July the 2nd. It was in the summer. It was like a hundred degrees outside. The water was hot. It wasn't, you know, a cold kind of thing that you had a hyperthermia thing. But this was salt water and it was hot. It wasn't, you know, it was, in the natural, he was, all natural signs were dead. He was dead.
Sid Roth: Did any medical person tell you he was dead?
Ella Brunt: That's what's on the medical reports.
Sid Roth: Okay. That's what I wanted to establish. You have a dead son. You have a vision of going, you know, going to his funeral and going on. Your son is dead. There seems nothing to hold on to. I mean, nothing except she believed God. Let's find out what God did. We'll be back right after this word.
Sid Roth: Hello. I'm Sid Roth your investigative reporter here with Ella Brunt. I mean, how would you like to be in a situation like this? Your six-year-old son, you're on a sailboat with your daughter and your six-year-old son and there's a shift and the sailboat is on its side. Your son is overboard. He's stuck, trapped there underwater. They can't find him. They dive down. Ten minutes later they find him. He's dead. They try to resuscitate him. They take a helicopter. They fly him to the emergency room at a hospital. And what happened then?
Ella Brunt: Okay. On the - this is really important that on the way to the hospital I was calling people saying "Cody has been in accident. Believe God for us that he will recover a hundred percent". At the time I really didn't know the severity of his injury. And then my husband wasn't even at the scene. I had to leave a message to say meet us at the hospital in Houston. So we all got to the hospital. The emergency room doctor came out and said, "Your son is very sick, that he was a near-drowning victim". And I looked at him and I said, "Doctor, what are you talking about, near drowning? I saw him drown". And he said, "Well the only difference between your son and a drowning victim is that a drowning victim is dead". And at that time the life support system was keeping him alive. He said he had irreversible brain damage. They had done CAT scans. His x-rays were a total white out, meaning they were totally full of fluid, salt water.
Sid Roth: What was full of fluid?
Ella Brunt: His lungs were full of fluid and it was salt water, so it was eating the lining of his lungs and they were hemorrhaging. So you had salt water, but then the bleeding, they said, “We can't stop the bleeding”. And he said, "We've done all we can. We're transferring him up to the CPC, PC.
Sid Roth: CPR?
Ella Brunt: Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, PICU. "And that you'll be able to see your son in a little bit, but we're still working on him". And my husband would listen to that report, and you'd hear it with your ears, but it wasn't really getting down into our spirit that we were just, you know, we just kept believing God, that God raised people from the dead in the Bible.
Sid Roth: Why would you believe God if you had this little vision that your son was dead - and he was dead - and the doctor says he's as good as dead from examining his brain waves.
Ella Brunt: Right. Well I just like - the key scripture, John 10:10 in the Bible. It says, “[Satan] comes… to steal, kill and destroy, [but] I have come [to give you] life, and that… more abundantly".
Sid Roth: So you were going on that word more than what you saw with your eyes.
Ella Brunt: Right.
Sid Roth: And more than even this vision that you had.
Ella Brunt: Correct. Because I knew that God healed people in the Bible. He raised them from the dead in the Bible, and out in the water I said, "God, you did it in the Bible and you will do it for us," I just had that trust. And whenever I said that with my mouth that "[he would] live, and not die", that there was a supernatural peace that came over me; that I wasn't frantic. I know my emotions, you know, as a mother. I saw them working on him, but I just held fast to what the Word of God said.
Sid Roth: Now your husband wasn't there. He obviously came to meet you. And what were the first words out of his mouth or your mouth when the two of you came together?
Ella Brunt: God had already given him a plan as he was praying on the way to the hospital. He said, "Faith-filled words dominate the laws of death". And he said, "Bad news don't shake him.” And that's out of Psalm 112. It says that, "The righteous man is not swayed by evil tidings". And so even though the doctor was telling us the evil report, we said we're not - we're steadfast on the Lord and we believe his Word, that his Word is truth. And as the doctors - as the days went by and the doctors report came in, we used those as prayer targets, and we did scriptures, and we prayed, you know, we prayed literally the Word of God because that's God's Word to us. And as we tell it back to God in prayer, we get God's results as we pray his Word, and we really believe that.
Sid Roth: What was happening to your son Cody, though, as you were believing this?
Ella Brunt: He was getting worse.
Sid Roth: Worse? You can't get that much worse than that report you had.
Ella Brunt: After two days then infection set in to his lungs, and so he has pneumonia. He did not even have any pain tolerance, a deep pain reflex or anything. So he was flat line brain wave. The transplant team was coming in doing CAT scans, EEGs on his brain, and they were just fixing up their schedule, report to present us to unplug him, and donate his organs. And we just - we weren't going to go that route. We were going to believe God and trust God.
Sid Roth: Question: Did you really, didn't you have moments where, "What's the use; he's dead"?
Ella Brunt: There were times in the hospital when just the evil report just kept coming and the doctors' report. They were doing all they could do, and we had to trust God that God would. It wasn't just God and over here the medical team, but it was a combination of medicine and God that saw our son brought back to a normal life, and it took time. It wasn't instantaneously.
Sid Roth: Wait a second. Medicine can't help someone that's brain dead. Let me repeat that. Medicine cannot help someone that's brain dead. We're going to find out a wonderful miracle. We'll be back right after this word.
Sid Roth: Hello. I'm Sid Roth your investigative reporter. I'm here with Ella Brunt, and this is unbelievable. Just a sailboat accident. The boat tips over, the son goes under, six-year-old son, ten minutes under, irreversible brain damage. But mother Ella decides to choose sides. She doesn't choose sides with this horrible circumstance. She doesn't even choose sides with this vision that she had that her son was dead. She chooses sides with the Word of God, and both Ella and her husband tenaciously against awful reports, her son rather than getting better is getting worse. There seems like there's no hope. Medical science is going the best they can, but there's nothing they can do with irreversible brain damage. You and your husband are holding on to the promises of God's Word. But it must be tough as he's getting worse with the natural eye.
Ella Brunt: It is, and the social workers would come and they'd hear us talking, and they just thought we were in denial. And we were in denial that those symptoms would stay on Cody, that we were denying their right to because Jesus bore that.
Sid Roth: Did you tell the doctor that?
Ella Brunt: Yes we did, and they just kind of listened to us and said, “well that's nice”, you know. But we did - I would answer the phone, I'd say, "Cody's mom, miracle in motion". You know, and everything that came out of our mouth was a positive thing. Ted had a game plan whenever we met. He said, “We won't speak anything but the desired end result, and that is he will walk out of this hospital a hundred percent restored and we won't allow anybody around him that won't agree with us”. And I know we had medical personnel, and they were hearing it. But we were just believing God that God was looking on his parents' confession rather than the doctors' confession. And we did a variety of things. We had people praying. We used the symptoms, the medical reports, as prayer targets. We'd specifically say that pneumonia had to go from his body. It could not stay. His blood levels would have to be normal. And any kind of report that we got we would target them with the Word of God, and the Word of God prevails.
Sid Roth: Now you told me about a pair of socks. Explain that.
Ella Brunt: A friend of mine with each child that I had, she came up to the hospital and put their first socks on whenever they were just born. And so she came up to the hospital and she said, "I've got this idea, Ella. You know, there's anointings that go through prayer cloths and things, but how about me getting a pair of socks and we'll put on them, "The enemy is defeated" and "Cody's victory's is complete" on the other one and we'll let Pastor preach with them Sunday morning during his message, and that anointing that flows with the Word of God will be on that, and then I'll come up and we'll put them on Cody". And that was a testimony. The medical personnel would come in and see that and they'd say, "What is that"? And then I'd show them how that in the Bible, you know, Paul had, you know, cloths and what in the anointing.
Sid Roth: The presence of God on Paul would come on the cloth.
Ella Brunt: The cloth.
Sid Roth: And you're saying the presence of God on your pastor.
Ella Brunt: Right.
Sid Roth: Came on those socks. But did you actually put them on Cody's feet?
Ella Brunt: Yes we did. Yes we did.
Sid Roth: Did you see any results in his legs?
Ella Brunt: No. In fact, whenever the nurses would come, I would rub his legs, and his feet were starting to tone in, you know, showing that there was brain damage and all this sort of thing. But I'd just rub them and I'd say, you know, "Cody, you're just going to run, and you're going to be a great ball player". And I would just confess. I would speak to his body. And so I was just, you know, there just ministering just to his body saying, you know, it's, "Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost. We've dedicated you to God and that, "[You] will live and not die". And I just, we had scriptures written on the walls, and we had the cassette player playing scripture tapes, and Christian music, and we just had the Word of God going into that situation in every way we could think of.
Sid Roth: How long was it until he actually was out of that hospital?
Ella Brunt: He was on total life support for nine and half days, and he was there in the hospital two weeks from the accident. He couldn't eat. His mobility was not normal. And so they had done all they could for him there at the hospital. They had, you know, got him to a point, and they transferred him to the rehabilitation hospital that's very noted there in Houston. And they told us initially he'd be there six to eight months, and he was out in ten days. Then I would go with him to his therapies and I would note what he couldn't do. Then that night we would pray over it and the next day he would go and he could do the tasks that he couldn't do.
Sid Roth: Okay. This is now three years after the event. Describe your son to me.
Ella Brunt: Well he qualified for a state tennis tournament this last summer. He's playing, he's an all-star baseball player. He's an A student. So academically and physically, God literally put a new brain, and he put new lungs in my son, and gave us back a totally 100 percent restored son.
Sid Roth: Ella, if you had not chosen to side with what the Bible says, what do you think would have happened to your son?
Ella Brunt: We wouldn't have our son today. I heard a pastor say, “What happens next is determined by what happens now”. And as I made that choice in the water and said, “No, devil. You cannot have my son”, that that was the dividing line that the battle was on. And we know that, “The battle is the Lord’s”, but the victory is ours. And so we just stood.
Sid Roth: Now when your son died in that ten minutes and was under the water, did he have any sort of experience with Heaven or with Jesus?
Ella Brunt: He doesn't talk about it much. He's very withdrawn on that subject. But he has told us that he did see this light. He saw Jesus come and Jesus talked to him. He said some words to him, but he said, "Mom, I can't remember them". But I said, "That's okay, son, you'll remember it, you know, whenever the time is right".
Sid Roth: You were telling me he saw a picture of Jesus with your husband.
Ella Brunt: Yes. They were Christmas shopping out in the mall at a Christian bookstore. They saw a picture up on the wall of Jesus, and Cody looked up at it and he asked his dad, he said, "Daddy, is that a picture of Jesus"? And my husband, "Yeah, Cody, that's a picture of Jesus". And Cody looked at it and he said, "You know, he doesn't look like that". And he just walked off. You know, he shows us glimpses that he's been there and he's experienced Heaven, because he wasn't on this earth for several minutes.
Sid Roth: Okay. There are many of our viewers right now that are going through life-threatening situations. What advice do you have for them?
Ella Brunt: I would have to say that whatever situation you're in that God has the solution, that Jesus loves you, that "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever". And if you can find scripture that fits your situation in the Bible, which there is a scripture there. You just have to search it; its treasure. You find that word, you stand on it and you remind God of his promises that the Word of God is his promise book to us and we can believe God and trust him, "...and he will give [us] the desires of [our] heart".
Sid Roth: Ella, I have just been hearing, actually before this interview started, I have been hearing about you. I've been hearing about someone that had a pain in their neck and another person that had a pain in their back, and another person that has a pain in their leg, and in their hip. And as a matter of fact, there are people with arthritic problems in your joints. And I have a word for you from God. It says, "By the blood of Jesus, by his stripes you were healed". In other words, 2,000 years ago when Jesus - and yes, there's someone's shoulder that you had a pain when you raised your hand. You'll find your arm, you don't have that pain anymore. But oh, it's so strong. And backs right now. You see, he took all of your pains upon himself 2,000 years ago. That's why Ella could tenaciously hold on to the promises of God because it's a finished fact. It happened 2,000 years ago, and Ella was holding on to it now. Whatever your circumstances - someone with a problem in their eyes, glaucoma, you are healed in Jesus' name. Another back is healed. There's someone with difficulty breathing. By his stripes you are healed. It's Jesus. He is the healer. It's Jesus. Whatever you need right now, the trust in his word is so high that you can reach out and you can say, in fact, take your hand and put your hand on the hurting part of your body. Let's suppose it's your wrist. Put your hand on your wrist and say, “Thank you Jesus. Thank you I'm healed. The pain is gone. The headache, it's gone.” Now it may not be gone, but it happened 2,000 years ago. He did it. And as you stand just as Ella stood, you will find that through faith and patience; hold on tenaciously. He's not a respecter of persons. What he did for Ella He will do for you, in Jesus' name. Be whole, be whole, in the name of Jesus.