September 5, 2024 - Reported [here]. In the past 14 months, Serena Scherrey Smith has experienced three life-saving miracles and countless blessings and feels called to share her story with the world.

I have so much to say about God, the universe and just faith, she said. I was carried by him and am still carried.

After her morning workout June 9, 2023, Smith, 52, suffered a sudden excruciating headache, went to bed and vomited almost continuously for 30 hours. She called her daughter Caroline Smith, who rushed over to take her to the hospital. When the CT scan revealed a ruptured brain aneurysm, she was immediately transported to the CHI St. Vincent's Arkansas Neuroscience Institute in Sherwood.

The helicopter couldn't take off because of tornado warnings, Smith said, and so I traveled to Little Rock by ambulance. That was when I received God's greatest gift. My parents, who had passed away in 2019 and 2020, appeared to me as angels, saying, Sweetie, it's not your time. You're going to be just fine. From that second, I was in total peace about everything.

At the hospital, she met Dr. Ali Krisht and learned that Arkansas Neuroscience Institute had a world-class reputation for treating brain aneurysms. In the operating room, the anesthesiologist said he would pray with her, through her and for her and was joined in prayer by Krisht. The aneurysm repair was successful.

The doctors told me if I had lost consciousness at any time before arriving at the institute, I would have gone into a vegetative state, Smith said.

Ten days later, the divorced mother of three adult children needed a second surgery to clip off the arteries in the brain to stop life-threatening vascular spasms.

Near the end of her monthlong stay in intensive care, Smith had a third surgery to treat hydrocephalus. The doctors inserted a cerebral shunt to drain the cerebral spinal fluid out of her brain each day.

Each time, I was near death, and when I asked for the medical records of my stay, I received 4,000 pages of material.

Her recovery continued at home.

The brain heals when it is at rest, the member of Christ the King Church in Fort Smith said. For a year, I had to sleep 20 hours a day, and even now, I sleep 12 hours a night and take a daily nap.

During this period, Smith lost her job as a private equity officer and was evicted from her rented townhouse. Without a home and income, a friend offered her a place to stay. Although she is now employed, she continues to live with her friend so someone is nearby in case of health problems.

I sent out 87 resumes all over the country, Smith said, but found a job here through Surennah Werley, director of religious education at Immaculate Conception Church. She told me to call her son Vic (Werley) at Pinnacle Advisors, and Vic hired me immediately. You have 30 years of experience, and I want you to work for me, he said.

Smith is a remote business development executive for the Little Rock firm.

For several years before her aneurysm ruptured, Smith went to Immaculate Conception Church each morning to light candles and pray the rosary to recover from depression caused by her parents deaths.

I had always been such a happy person, she said.I begged God to deliver the pain from me and he did. I was able to surrender my life to God fully. His plan for my life was even bigger than I ever could have imagined.

Today, Smith is in good health and is back to working out daily at her local gym.

With the encouragement of the medical staff, family and friends, Smith, with the help of two ghostwriters, is writing the story of her miraculous healing. She hopes to have the book ready for publication this fall.

My mom has been very positive and strong through her health problems, Smith said, never doubted her faith and remained true to herself and her beliefs. She has inspired me and my brothers, and I've come out stronger.