Doctors are calling a West Virginia woman a medical miracle, after she lived through the unthinkable.

"There are things that physicians and nurses...can't always explain. And I think this (was) one of those cases," Dr. Kevin Eggleston of the Charleston Area Medical Center said.

Eggleston and his colleagues watched 59-year-old Velma Thomas' heart stop not one, but three times.

She had suffered two heart attacks and had no brain activity for more than 17 hours. With no pulse and rigor mortis setting in, doctors were ready to take her off life support.

"There were really no signs she had neurological function," Eggleston said.

But Thomas' family began to pray.

"I said, 'God show me something,"' her nephew Daniel Pence said.

Ten minutes after doctors removed her tubes, the woman woke up and started talking. Thomas says she and her family believe the Lord granted them a miracle.

"I'm feeling wonderful compared to the way I was feeling a few days ago," she said.

Doctors at the clinic say Thomas has no blockage and will be just fine. Her family believes she was meant to be alive.

Source: ABC News