My name is Aaron Sturup and I am 34 years old. I have three children and a loving wife. A few years ago I had a severe bilateral pulmonary embolism. This is a life threatening condition, but I was unaware of the severity of this. So my condition went undiagnosed for several months before it became too heavy to bear. So I went to the emergency room and that's when they diagnosed me.

Because I did not get treatment in time, the pulmonary embolism became chronic. This later changed my diagnosis to something called CTEPH. CTEPH is a lung disease with a life expectancy of 5-7 years. This lung disease is categorized by chronic (permanent) blood clots in your lungs that are typically very distal (deep). My last option for survival was 1 of two surgeries. A lung transplant or a thoracic surgery where they cut the clots out of my lungs. I currently had 1 scan left to determine what they were going to do.

Around this time I joined the Knights of Columbus. On March 21st I met my brother Knight Craig Gilbert, he is our faith director. I told him about my condition and he offered to pray with me for Father Michael Mcgivney’s intercession in the matter. After this powerful prayer I started to notice a small change in my ability to perform everyday tasks. CTEPH severely limits your ability to even walk. The morning after this prayer I began to hear a prayer in my head for my lungs. During my morning prayer session I heard it every time I prayed for my own healing. I would do my normal prayers but I never listened to what the Holy Spirit was telling me to pray.  

On March 31st, 1 day before my scan, I finally decided to be obedient. And during my morning prayer I prayed what the Holy Spirit was telling me to pray for 9 days now. I prayed that by the time the doctors did the scan they wouldn’t be able to find the clots anymore in Jesus' name. Then came April 1st the day of the scan. I had to wake up early so I skipped my morning prayer and went straight to the doctors office. All morning I was nervous and thinking about our Lord and Savior. I was thinking about that special prayer the Holy Spirit had given me.  

They called me into the operating room for the scan which was somewhat invasive. The doctors put a catheter up my artery in my groin. They did this because that artery connects to my heart and lungs. They took X-ray pictures while pumping my lungs full of Contrast (a substance that illuminates things on X-ray). This scan usually takes about 10 minutes but I was in there for 45 minutes. At the end of the procedure that doctor briefed me on what happened. She said that they were unable to find any clots in my lungs! Praise Jesus and thank you Father Michael Mcgivney! Obviously I said that’s pretty strange seeing as the clots were causing all my symptoms. The doctor agreed that this shouldn’t have happened. So I told her that we prayed about it. She affirmed that prayer might have something to do with these unexpected results.  

Since then my symptoms have all but disappeared, and the doctors visits have stopped completely. I'm not sure why but maybe it’s because there is no longer anything we need to talk about. I no longer have CTEPH, the life threatening disease that was slowly killing me. Now I have plenty of years on this earth left to serve our King the Lord Jesus. He is the Way the Truth and the Life. All glory to God in the highest.

I hope this is helpful to my brother knights to always listen to the path the Holy Spirit is guiding you to.

Brother knight Aaron Sturup