‘God Gave Me a New Heart’: Pastor Survives Heart Transplant amid the Pandemic

A Florida Pastor has a new lease on
life following a near-death experience.
In mid-March, Pastor Mark Berney of
River of Life Assembly of God Church
in Merritt Island, Florida fell back in his
chair and started seizing during the
course of a sermon he was preaching.
Shortly afterward, Berney awoke,
encircled by church members after
they called 911 and dashed towards
the stage to pray for him.
The pastor was then taken instantly by
an ambulance to AdventHealth Orlando
(Formerly Florida Hospital).
The doctors there told Berney, 61, that
because of past heart issues he would
need a heart transplant.
“My mortality was real — it’s that way
for everybody,” Berney said in a press
release obtained by Faithwire .
While the preacher admits that he had
“no guarantees” over the future of his
physical body, he recognized the power
of faith.
“So I grabbed a hold of my faith and I
drove down where God was concerned
and recognized that He’s my prize,
ultimately. When I signed up for Him,
He’s my ultimate destiny,” Berney
asserted.
“That began giving me peace of mind
— knowing I was gonna be OK,” he
continued. “No matter what, I couldn’t
lose. I’d always win.”
Even in the midst of the coronavirus
pandemic, the pastor underwent a
successful heart transplant on April 22.
“Words cannot express how I feel,”
Berney said of the donor and his
surviving family. “How humbled I am
for it and how grateful I am.”
For the first time in over the course of
a decade, he was able to feel the
warmth of his legs again.
The Florida preacher could not help but
be “completely blown away at the
mercy of God.”
“The blood that’s going to my brain, I
feel like I’ve woken up from a deep
sleep,” he said, “and I just wanna tell
you, I don’t care what you’re going
through in life, if you will drill down in
your faith, He will give you what it
takes to get you to the other side.”
Berney also commended the hospital
and its staff for attending to his care
with “tireless dedication”, especially
when his wife could not visit him in the
ICU because of COVID-19 restrictions.
Dr. Nirav Raval, thoracic medical
director at Advent Health Transplant
Institute, further elaborated over the
preacher’s miraculous recovery.
“He could have, frankly, died then and
there if he didn’t have a defibrillator,”
the doctor said, citing that “medical
science and divine intervention”
contributed to Berney’s survival.
“I’m impressed and I’m still
overwhelmed emotionally,” the pastor
said. “[I]’m extremely humbled at the
gift of life.”