Miracle Healing

The following testimony is taken from a book entitled The Hand of God written by Fr Martin J Scott S.J.

" On the 17th of December 1899, the Fast Mail Train on the way from Bordeaux to Paris met with a collision. In the mail car was post office express clerk, Gabriel Gargan, he was thirty years of age. At the time of the wreck the train was going at a speed of fifty miles an hour. Gargan was thrown fifty-two feet by the impact. He was terribly broken and he was paralyzed from the waist down. He was barely alive when lifted onto a stretcher.
Taken to a hospital, his existence for sometime was a living death. After eight months he had wasted away to a mere skeleton weighing but seventy-eight pounds, although normally he was a big man. His feet became gangrenous, he could take no solid food and was obliged to take nourishment by a tube.
He brought suit for damages against the railroad. The Appellate Court confirmed the verdict of the former courts and granted him 6,000 francs annually, this was besides an indemnity of 60,000 francs.
Gargan's condition was pitiable in the extreme. He could not help himself even in the most trifling needs. Two trained nurses were needed day and night to assist him. That was Gabriel Gargan as he was after the accident, and as he would continue to be until death relieved him. About his desperate condition there could be no doubt. The railroad fought the case on every point. There was no room for deception or hearsay. Two courts attested to his condition, and the final payment of the railroad left the case a matter of record. Doctors testified that the man was a hopeless cripple for life, and their testimony was not disputed.
Previous to the accident Gargan had not been to church for fifteen years. His Aunt, who was a nun of the order of the Sacred Heart, begged him to go to Lourdes, but he refused. She continued her appeals to him, to place himself in the hands of our Lady of Lourdes, but he was deaf to all her prayers.
Finally, after the continuous pleading of his mother, he consented to go to Lourdes. It was now two years since the accident, and he had not left his bed in all that time. He was carried on a stretcher to the train. The exertion caused him to faint, and for a full hour he was unconscious. They were on the point of abandoning the pilgrimage - as it looked as if he would die on the way, but his mother insisted and the journey was made.
At Lourdes, he went to confession and received Holy Communion, but there was no change in his condition. Later he was carried to the pool and tenderly placed in the waters but with rather a bad effect, as the exertion threw him into a swoon and he lay there apparently dead. After a time, as he did not revive, they thought him dead. Sorrowfully they wheeled the carriage back to the hotel. On the way back they saw the procession of the Holy Eucharist approaching. They stood aside to let it pass, having placed a cloth over the face of the man whom they supposed to be dead.
As the priest passed carrying the Sacred Host, he pronounced benediction over the sorrowful group around the covered body. Suddenly there was a movement from under the covering. To the amazement of the bystanders, the body raised itself to a sitting posture. While the family were looking on dumbfounded and the spectators gazed in amazement, Gargan said in a full, strong voice, that he wanted to get up.
They thought that it was a delirium before death, and tried to sooth him, but he was not to be restrained. He got up and stood erect, walked a few paces and said that he had been cured. The multitude looked on in wonder and then fell to their knees and thanked God that another amazing sign of His power had been shown at the shrine of the Blessed Virgin Mary. As Gargan had on him only invalid's clothes, he returned to the carriage and was wheeled back to the hotel. Soon he was dressed and proceeded to walk about as if nothing had ever ailed him. For two years hardly any food had passed his lips but now he sat down to the table and ate a hearty meal.
On August 20th, 1901, sixty prominent doctors examined Gargan. Without stating the nature of the cure, they pronounced him completely healed. Gargan, out of gratitude to God in the Holy Eucharist and his Blessed Mother, consecrated himself to the service of the invalids at Lourdes.
Fifteen years after his miraculous cure he was still engaged in his strenuous and devoted work. He was for years a living visible testimony of a supernatural healing from God. Lifting the helpless from their cots, aiding the cripples, ministering to the afflicted, he was to be seen, day after day, a living miracle."