Steve's Testimony...

My name is Steve Bramham; I have been healed by the grace of our Almighty Lord and Savior. Here follows my story and testimony.

In 1986 I severely injured my back in an on-the-job work accident. I ruptured two discs in my lower back at levels L4-L5 and L5-S1. After months of therapy to relieve my pain, and having several myelograms, an MRI and CT scan performed, the doctors determined that surgery was needed. 

They performed a procedure called a lamenectomy and fusion. This involves making an incision from the middle of my back down to my buttocks. Two steel rods were attached to my spine and donor bone from my right hip was used in the fusion process.

I was bedridden for nearly 4 months and not permitted to return to work for a year after surgery. But the pain continued. In fact it was worsening. 

I had multiple epidural injections of cortisone which not only provided no pain relief but severely aggravated a skin condition I have called cylindroma.

About five years after the initial surgery and with a constant level of pain, the doctors performed a series of bending and flexion X-rays and a discagram discovering the initial fusion was broken. 

They performed a second operation called an anterior fusion. They went through the abdomen, removing internal organs and laying them out of the way. Then with donor bone from a cadaver they hammered bone wedges into my spine, held in place by titanium screws.

(There is a fibular strut graft at L4-L5 and L5-S1 as well as inner transverse process bone graft at L4-L5 bilaterally. There are two surgical screws, one each located in the bodies of L4 and L5 anteriorly centered at the midline.  There are also two rods, one each to the left and right of the midline anchored to the posterior elements of L4 and S1. There are surgical clips projected just anterior to L5 and S1.)

The doctors had me using a Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS) unit to help with the pain. It provided very little relief. I was also being treated at Northside Hospital's Pain Clinic in Atlanta with Electronic Muscle Stimulation (EMS) also with no success.

The doctors at the Pain Clinic prescribed daily dosages of Methadone and were planning on implanting a morphine pump as a means of controlling the high level of pain I was experiencing.

I was being treated with Zoloft for severe depression due to the constant pain I was under.

I had to use a walking cane all the time just to keep from falling down. Scar tissue had grown around the sciatic nerve where the donor bone had been taken causing my right leg to give way. I had uncontrollable leg twitching at night that was so severe I could not get any sleep.

I was drinking a large glass of whiskey every night, along with the pain pills and anti-depressants, just to get some temporary relief from the pain.

The doctors told me there was nothing else they could do and that I would have to be on medication for the rest of my life just to attempt to control the pain. I was at the lowest point in my life, even considering suicide as an option to end the pain.

In June of 1999 I was given a wheelchair due to the problems I was having with my mobility. The depression was getting worse.

Our youngest daughter, Kimberly, attends Kennesaw State University and had become involved in a youth group at Christ the King Church in Acworth, Georgia. My wife, Sharon, and I started attending ‘Christ the King’ Church for Sunday worship services and we really liked the pastor, the people of the church, and the message that was being taught. After being out of the church for nearly 20 years, we had found our new home. 

About four weeks after we started attending church, a wonderful lady named Delores Winder came to the church to tell the story of her miraculous healing during a Katherine Kuhlman service.

Sharon, Kimberly and I attended the first service Saturday night. I found myself in the first row, aisle seat. Right where Delores was speaking. Delores spoke for about an hour and then said there were some there that were in need of healing and she started praying for them. 

Then she came over to where I was sitting and laying her hand on my head began praying for me. She told me to give her my cane. I hesitated because I had just received this new cane and didn’t want to give it up. But she said once again, “Give me your cane.” 

Then she told me to get up and walk. Getting up from the sitting position was difficult enough when I could use my cane. Trying to get up without it, I knew, was going to be impossible. I slowly started to stand, expecting severe nerve pain to shoot up my back and down my leg. But there was no pain. I came to a full standing position with no pain.

Delores told me to walk. Now I figured this would be the real test. Can I walk without falling down? Will there be any pain? I walked to the rear of the church, then back to the front. I tried climbing the steps to the podium. No pain, Praise the Lord!  I was totally free from all pain for the first time in over 13 years.

The most important thing though is not the healing - while I certainly enjoy being free of pain after 13 years - but being able to follow Jesus Christ and minister to others that are still hurting.

I now serve my Lord Jesus Christ in a faith based ministry traveling throughout the world proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ.