Axel’s Miracle: Healing and Hope at Joni’s House Nicaragua

“Axel doesn’t move his hands much,” Dania told the doctor, cradling her baby boy in her arms.  

“Don’t worry,” the doctor answered… 

Dania couldn’t imagine the heartbreak ahead… 

Living Nicaragua, Dania had enjoyed her uneventful pregnancy and went through a natural delivery without complications. But during Axel’s early childhood, his mother’s concerns for his health proved to be well-founded. 

By age four, Axel received a diagnosis of cerebral palsy but continued to thrive. At age five, however, a massive seizure marked the beginning of a heartbreaking new reality.  

“After the seizure. Axel was in a vegetative state. He lost control of his body. He couldn’t even sit up,” says Dania. 

Though he emerged from his vegetative state, nothing was the same after Axel’s catastrophic seizure. He spiraled into a regression crisis, which led to a new diagnosis: leukodystrophy, a rare and degenerative brain disorder. Dania recalls: 

“This was a very painful stage for me. Axel lost the ability to walk, talk, and remember what he had learned. The doctor explained that his condition was progressive… and terminal.” 

Though Dania was doubtful at first, she saw God begin to work in unexpected ways. 

Over the years, the team at Joni’s House became a lifeline, supporting Axel through multiple setbacks, including a second severe regression and extended hospitalization in 2018. With every crisis came a new wave of physical and emotional challenges. Still, Dania has never stopped hoping.

And she’s never stopped showing up—week after week, year after year—bringing Axel to therapy and trusting God with every next step. 

“Axel was angry with God because he prayed to walk—and it didn’t happen,” says Dania. 

Like Joni Eareckson Tada, who often prayed for a miracle—and the ability to walk—after her diving accident, Axel wrestled to accept God’s love when his prayers weren’t granted as he hoped.

But like Joni, Axel found new hope and a deeper healing in Jesus through the help of Christian friends.  

Our Joni’s House staff met Axel in his anguish and grief, pouring out Christ’s love and the promises of his Word. And over time, a process of deep healing began to unfold. One day he shared with his mother a glimpse of the miraculous heart-healing taking place. 

“Axel told me he had accepted Christ in his heart. The psychologist helped him pray, ask God for forgiveness, and ask God to heal his heart,” Dania says. 

Axel, once angry and withdrawn, began to speak softly, pray at night, and even talk about his father—whom he had long resented. 

“He had hated his father. He believed he’d been abandoned. But after he did the prayer of faith, he started asking to spend time with his father… and now he enjoys being with him,” says Dania. 

And she continues to entrust Axel’s future to the God who has carried them through so many years. 

“I am confident that God will lend him to me for many more years. From the bottom of my heart, thank you very much. I ask God to bless all those who support this project,” says Dania. 

“But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.” Isaiah 53:5