Pastor Returns Home After Doctors Initially Declared Him Brain Dead, Wife Says: 'God's Kept Him Here'
Ryan's Recovery/Facebook
North Carolina pastor Ryan Marlow was declared dead before he eventually woke up from a "deep coma," according to his wife. Now, he's back home with loved ones.
Ryan's wife, Megan, says the 37-year-old pastor fell ill with a listeria infection in August, which resulted in a traumatic brain stem injury, according to a Facebook page dedicated to her husband's recovery.
About two weeks later, she was told her husband was "clinically deceased," his wife told NBC station WXII. In a GoFundMe campaign update, Megan wrote that he was being prepared for organ donation.
"Even in death, my husband is helping others. He was an organ donor so he is being kept alive with life support while donor matches are found," she wrote in an update dated August 28. "I cannot thank you all enough for your prayers and financial support during this unimaginably painful time."
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However, Megan — who did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for comment — soon said on Facebook that Ryan was not actually "clinically deceased."
In a Facebook video, Megan said that on August 29, her husband's doctor called and said that because of his "rare circumstance" they had "called in an expert panel and discovered that they made a mistake and that my husband, in fact, did not pass away."
"I was told he still suffered a traumatic brain stem injury and he was still basically brain dead," she said in the video, adding "all it did is now they were going to change the time of death."
"They had put down clinical death on Saturday and they had to remove it," Megan said during an interview with WXII. "Now the time of death would be Tuesday afternoon," she added, which was the day scheduled for his organ donation surgery.
PEOPLE reached out to the hospital, Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, for comment. Ryan was treated at their neuro intensive care unit, per NBC affiliate WXII.
During the Facebook video, Megan said that while saying their goodbyes to Ryan, his feet moved while a family member played him videos of their three children, according to the Charlotte Observer.
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"I'm crying, and I don't want to have false hope," Megan said in the video. "This can happen when people are brain dead. They can have twitches."
After speaking with loved ones, the following day, Megan insisted that doctors test her husband's brain function instead of following through with organ donation. "Literally, our team was standing there waiting to take him," Megan said. "I tell the nurse, stop everything right now."
Megan said that a test soon revealed that Ryan's brain still had blood flow, which left him in a "deep coma."
"God's kept him here," Megan said on Facebook. "He's supposed to be dead, he's supposed to be at the funeral home right now according to these doctors."
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This month, family and friends put on a parade for Ryan's return home, which Megan says while attended by hundreds. Pictures of the event showed Ryan in a wheelchair.
Megan also recently posted a message to Facebook in honor of National Brain Injury Awareness Month.
"He was living a beautiful and healthy life and then something as innocent as eating supper turned his world upside down with an Acquired Brain Injury from listeria," she wrote of Ryan. "He is a fighter. He is the strongest man I know. He is my hero."
Listeria causes symptoms such as fever, muscle aches, and diarrhea, and it can cause meningitis, per Mayo Clinic. However, thoroughly washing produce and cooking meat to the appropriate temperature can help prevent the infection.
In her latest update, shared on Monday, Megan wrote that they were "still trying to figure out that 'magic fix'" but have a "couple of big appointments" coming up. She added, "Help us pray for a wonderful day!"
