Pastor Efraín Picado from Nicaragua tells us about his near-death experience with COVID-19, and how God and the prayers and support from the church helped him in that difficult time, “I said goodbye to my kids and my wife, and I told them to stop fighting for me, because I was really tired and didn’t want to fight it anymore.”
“My name is Efraín Antonio Picado Téllez* and I have been an elder in the Church of the Nazarene in Nicaragua since the year 2000. I was called to pastor in 1996.
On May 26th, I started to feel sick and it worsened to the point of being unable to get out of bed because the pain in my liver was too intense and, on top of that, my heart is very weak. I started a treatment for my liver and heart, but my health was not improving. It got to a point where I could not rest during the day or at night. Four days after the pain started, they started to treat me with antibiotics and vaccines for the pain, but my body was not responding to the treatments. My wife took care of me in this time. No one suspected that it was coronavirus because I did not have a fever and even the cough I had seemed to be related to my heart condition. None of the other coronavirus symptoms were present, so I continued with the treatment they were giving me.
On June 1st, my body started to get much weaker, I could hardly breathe. I fainted and fell twice, I could hardly stand. My wife and children told me that they couldn’t open my mouth, and that my eyes had lost their sparkle; they felt that I was dying.
The next day, I said goodbye to my kids and my wife, and I told them to stop fighting for me, because I was really tired and didn’t want to fight it anymore. I could hear my wife speaking to the pastors, brothers, and sisters in Christ asking for their prayers, but it sounded to me like they were far away. Later, I realized that many people were praying and fasting so that God would take control of my situation and heal me.
On June 2nd, my children and my wife took me to two different private hospitals, but neither wanted to admit me because they said they couldn’t do anything but wait for me to pass.
I was already very weak when a hospital admitted me, gave me oxygen, and took me to the health center where God brought in His angel, a woman doctor who I have pastored. She ran several tests and detected atypical pneumonia. They immediately transferred me to a public hospital, where they could do very little for me. However, they tested me for the COVID-19. By the next day, they told me that I had tested positive, and then they transferred me to the hospital that deals with those cases. Once I was in that hospital, my treatment for COVID-19 began.
My experience in the hospital was very difficult. I could see people complaining, unable to breathe on their own. Each day, I watched as people around me passed away and some were discharged.
The loneliness, not knowing anything from my family was difficult (wondering if they had also caught it), and not being able to breathe on my own all caused my sugar levels and my blood pressure to go up, which made my situation more serious. For four days, I felt like I was never going to go home; however, on the fifth day, I started to feel better, and by the eighth day, I was discharged with a treatment.
I went home and was reunited with my family who were waiting for me with joy and thankfulness before God. Even with my body beat, with a cough, back pain, and trouble breathing, but with the desire to move forward, I trusted in the protection of our Most High God.
I give God the glory because He was with me in each moment, He never left me for a second during that sickness. I give Him all the honor and glory, and I can only express my gratitude from the depths of my heart and say, “THANK YOU, MY GOD!”
One week after leaving the hospital, God allowed me to celebrate another year of life. I could not give this testimony today if it hadn’t been for the bent knees of each pastor, each leader, and each brother and sister that accompanied me in this hard process. It’s not just the physical exhaustion that suffers in this sickness, but also the family. That’s why I thank God for them for journeying with me the whole time.
God has given me a new opportunity and I want to take advantage of it by serving and doing more for Him, praying for those who are suffering from sickness.
May God receive all the glory forever and ever, Amen.”
*Pastor Efraín Antonio Picado Téllez is an elder in the Church of the Nazarene in Nicaragua, and is the husband of the District Superintendent in the Central District in Nicaragua.
