Doctors said she would not recover, but her sister prayed that she could remain on the earth longer.
It was a carefree and fun Saturday night like many others when Monica Petralia went out to dinner with friends at a pizzeria near the city of Ferrara (Italy). She ordered the usual -- a mushroom and ham pizza. Little did she know it would lead to a life-changing near-death experience.
In 2013, she appeared on the Italian Catholic television network TV2000 to talk about her experience. She recounted how, three hours after eating the pizza:
In a coma
Her friends immediately took her to the emergency room in Ferrara, a 30-mile journey. Monica was in very serious condition and the doctors didn’t know what to do. They discovered that she had suddenly become allergic to some everyday foods. It was the tomato that put her in a coma that night.
Her near-death experience
At a moment of crisis during the coma that lasted three days, the doctors were deciding whether to keep her on life support. Monica experienced a dramatic and at the same time wonderful near-death experience:
A blazing light greeted her, giving her a feeling of extraordinary peace and well-being that she had never felt before:
Among these presences Monica recognized Padre Pio and Pope John Paul II.
Her unexpected recovery
The chief doctor of the intensive care unit gave her up for dead. He could see no hope.
40 days of convalescence and a desire to help others
After a short time, Monica awoke from her coma without any irreversible damage, contrary to every prognosis. Her convalescence lasted 40 days. It was a long, complex period, but in that desert God inspired in her heart a desire to be near the sick in the very same hospital where she received treatment:
And so for many years Monica has been a caregiver, supporting patients and standing by the sick in the very ward where she too was once hospitalized.
Shortly after recovering her health, with her soul filled with gratitude, she decided to handwrite a letter to Pope John Paul II, who unexpectedly replied to her. It was an immense joy for her to receive the Holy Father's apostolic blessing – a precious gift that she will never forget.
I wish the Holy Spirit would always give me a smile and the strength to be able to say to people who are (...) worse off than me: “Come on! Don't be afraid of this earthly life because although we are just passing through, the Lord is our goal.”
