The Good Stuff: A miracle for Miracle

SHREVEPORT, La. (KSLA) - Recent high school graduate, Miracle Birdsong, is already focused on her college days ahead at Jackson State in Mississippi.

“I move in August 13,” she said excitedly, with some suitcases already packed more than a month in advance.

There’s certainly nothing wrong with planning ahead, but to fully appreciate all that Miracle has been through before walking across the Green Oaks High School graduation stage, her mother, Brenda, can’t help but look back.

“I do, I do,” she said, almost at a loss for words. “It’s a miracle.”

A miracle for Miracle, and the need for one, began just months after the now 19-year-old was born with a host of medical issues.

“They were telling me the possibilities of abnormalities,” she explained.

When she was born, Miracle’s heart was on the opposite side of her body, which stunted the growth of one of her lungs. So in the months that followed, she underwent multiple surgeries on her heart and stomach before being sent home.

Soon after, Brenda realized Miracle had a very long way to go after witnessing repeated nights of Miracle struggling to breathe and other medical issues.

“It was a parent’s worse nightmare to end up calling 911,” admitted Brenda.

But the calls for help didn’t stop with the first one.

“The least amount of times I remember calling them, three times a week. There were times I called them every day,” Brenda said.

And this went on for years... Responding to that very first call, and hundreds if not thousands of calls afterwards, was a young EMT named Clarence Reese.

“Being in the back of an ambulance with Miracle was very overwhelming for a new paramedic,” remembered Reese, who is now chief of the fire department.

“Many times, I’m just praying that we made it to the hospital and I wasn’t doing chest compressions and rescue breathing for her in route,” he added.

Even after the calls for help ended, the two continued to run into each other throughout the years at grocery stores and parks. But that didn’t stop Chief Reese from responding to one more call to service, so to speak. He was there for Miracle’s greatest moment yet: her graduation from Green Oaks High School.

“Everything they said she wouldn’t do, she’s done it,” smiled Brenda. “That is a miracle for me to see her walk across the stage.”

It’s a miracle for Miracle that Chief Reese credits God with for placing him on those calls to their home, time and time again.

“She’s definitely a miracle child, a miracle adult now,” Chief Reese added.

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