Concept

Yaxury Solorzano (Jose Gregorio Hernandez 2017)

Intro

In March 2017 a ten-year-old Venezuelan girl, Yaxury Solórzano, was riding with her father in the countryside when robbers tried to take his motorcycle. One of them fired a shotgun, and she was hit in the head behind her right ear. It took about seven hours to get her to a hospital. She had lost a lot of blood, and part of her skull and brain.

Her mother, Carmen Ortega, prayed to José Gregorio Hernández, a Venezuelan doctor who died in 1919 and is remembered as "the doctor of the poor." The neurosurgeon who operated expected that, if she lived, she would be left disabled. Ten days later she walked into his office, so well that he did not recognize her. Later scans still showed the injury in her brain, but she had none of the damage it should have caused.

The Vatican's doctors and theologians studied the case and found no natural explanation. Pope Francis approved it as a miracle in June 2020. It was the miracle that allowed Hernández to be beatified in 2021, and he was declared a saint in 2025. The case is filed in the documented tier because it passed the formal Vatican process.

José Gregorio Hernández (1864 to 1919), physician and professor in Caracas, in a studio portrait from the early twentieth century. Public domain under Venezuelan law, via Wikimedia Commons.

The 30-second version:

In March 2017, ten-year-old Yaxury Solórzano was shot in the head behind the right ear during a robbery in rural Guárico, Venezuela, and reached a hospital about seven hours later with loss of bone and brain tissue. Her mother prayed to José Gregorio Hernández. Her neurosurgeon, Dr. Alexander Krinitzky, operated on 10 March expecting lasting deficits if she survived; ten days later she came to his office walking and talking normally. A CT scan in December 2018 still showed the brain lesion but no symptoms or after-effects. The Vatican's medical board called the recovery inexplicable in January 2020, and Pope Francis approved the miracle on 19 June 2020.

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In full

The case is the beatification miracle of José Gregorio Hernández Cisneros, born in Isnotú, Venezuela, on 26 October 1864 and killed by a car in Caracas on 29 June 1919, a physician and teacher of medicine known for treating the poor without charge. According to ACI Prensa, Yaxury Solórzano Ortega was shot in the head with a shotgun in March 2017 near her home in the hamlet of Mangas Coveras, Guárico state, when criminals tried to steal her father's motorcycle; she was admitted to the Hospital Pablo Acosta Ortiz with heavy blood loss and loss of bone and brain matter. The neurosurgeon Alexander Krinitzky told Blu Radio that he received photographs of the wound in Caracas, traveled to operate on 10 March 2017, and judged her prospects poor because she was unconscious and had reached care about seven hours after the shot. Ten days after surgery her mother brought her to his private office, and he did not recognize her. He described recovery "in only ten days" with "no neurological deficit" as "absolutely inexplicable." A CT scan ordered by the diocesan tribunal in December 2018 showed the brain lesion but no symptoms or sequelae (ACI Prensa). The Medical Commission of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints recognized the cure as inexplicable on 9 January 2020, the Theological Commission concurred on 27 April 2020, and the Holy See Press Office bulletin of 19 June 2020 records the decree on "the miracle attributed to the intercession of the venerable Servant of God José Gregorio Hernández Cisneros." Hernández was beatified in Caracas on 30 April 2021. On 25 February 2025 Pope Francis approved his canonization without requiring a second miracle, and Pope Leo XIV canonized him in St. Peter's Square on 19 October 2025, Venezuela's first saint, together with Carmen Rendiles. Under the Miracles schema the case is Tier 1 on Vatican ratification.

Summary

Yaxury Solórzano Ortega, aged ten, was shot in the head behind the right ear during an attempted motorcycle robbery near Mangas Coveras, Guárico state, Venezuela, in March 2017. She reached a hospital about seven hours later with loss of bone and brain tissue, and neurosurgeon Alexander Krinitzky operated on 10 March with a guarded prognosis. Her mother, Carmen Ortega, prayed for the intercession of José Gregorio Hernández. Ten days after the operation the girl was walking and talking without deficit, and a CT scan in December 2018 showed the old lesion with no symptoms or after-effects. The Vatican's Medical Commission (9 January 2020) and Theological Commission (27 April 2020) approved the case, Pope Francis signed the decree on 19 June 2020, Hernández was beatified on 30 April 2021, and he was canonized on 19 October 2025.

The event

1. The shooting. In March 2017 Yaxury and her father were attacked by robbers who wanted his motorcycle. A shotgun was fired from about three meters, and she was hit behind the right ear (Krinitzky, Blu Radio; ACI Prensa).
2. The delay. She reached a health center about seven hours after the shot. The first facility had no neurosurgeon (Blu Radio). She was admitted with heavy blood loss and loss of bone and brain tissue (ACI Prensa).
3. The surgery. Dr. Alexander Krinitzky, contacted in Caracas with photographs of the wound, traveled and operated on 10 March 2017. She was unconscious, and he held out little hope (Blu Radio).
4. The prognosis. The doctors expected, if she survived, motor and speech disability, memory loss and loss of vision (ACI Prensa).
5. The prayer. Her mother, Carmen Ortega, prayed for the intercession of José Gregorio Hernández. Reports say she heard him tell her that everything would be all right (National Geographic).
6. Ten days later. Her mother brought her to Krinitzky's private office. He did not recognize her at first, so complete was the change (Blu Radio). National Geographic reports that she had recovered completely within a week of surgery.
7. The scan. A CT scan ordered by the diocesan tribunal in December 2018 showed the brain lesion still present but no symptoms or after-effects (ACI Prensa).
8. Recognition. The Vatican's Medical Commission called the cure inexplicable on 9 January 2020; the Theological Commission agreed on 27 April 2020; Pope Francis approved the decree on 19 June 2020 (ACI Prensa; Holy See Press Office). Hernández was beatified in Caracas on 30 April 2021 and canonized in Rome on 19 October 2025.

Witnesses + documentation

• Yaxury Solórzano Ortega, the patient, presented publicly by Cardinal Baltazar Porras in February 2020 (ACI Prensa).
• Carmen Ortega, her mother, who prayed for Hernández's intercession (ACI Prensa).
• Dr. Alexander Krinitzky, the neurosurgeon who operated and saw her ten days later, who has spoken publicly and on the record (Blu Radio).
• Cardinal Jorge Urosa Savino, former Archbishop of Caracas, who stated that the girl "was totally cured, in a way inexplicable by natural causes" (ACI Prensa).
• The diocesan tribunal, which ordered the December 2018 scan.
• The Congregation for the Causes of Saints, whose medical and theological commissions and cardinals reviewed the case (Holy See Press Office, 19 June 2020).

Verification

What was checked:

1. The official recognition. The Holy See Press Office bulletin of 19 June 2020 lists the decree on the miracle attributed to Hernández's intercession. The bulletin does not name the patient; the identification comes from the Archdiocese of Caracas and ACI Prensa.
2. A named treating surgeon. Unlike many cases, the operating neurosurgeon is named and has described the injury, the surgery and the recovery in his own words.
3. Imaging after the fact. The December 2018 scan matters because it shows the injury was real: the lesion is still visible, but its expected effects are absent.

Naturalistic explanations considered:

• Survival of a penetrating head wound. People do survive gunshot wounds to the head, and Krinitzky himself grants that survival is possible. His point is the outcome: full recovery with no neurological deficit in about ten days, after hours of delay and tissue loss.
• A less severe injury than reported. If the wound were superficial, the recovery would be unremarkable. Against it, the reports describe loss of bone and brain matter, and the 2018 scan still showed a brain lesion.
• Brain plasticity in children. Children recover from brain injury better than adults. That would be expected over months of rehabilitation, not within ten days, and the 2018 scan found no lasting deficit at all.

Caveats and remaining uncertainties:

• The medical file is not public. No published source prints the operative notes, the scans, or the report of the Vatican medical board.
• Details differ between reports. Her age is given as 10, and in one report as 12 at the time of a later examination; National Geographic says she recovered within a week, Krinitzky says ten days. The place is given as Guárico state by ACI Prensa; another report calls her a native of Apure.
• The narrative comes mainly through Catholic and Venezuelan news sources. No independent clinical publication was found.
• No skeptical analysis was found. A search turned up no published critique of this case.

Apologetic value

• A named surgeon on the record. The strongest witness is the specialist who operated, who calls the outcome inexplicable in medical terms, not in religious ones.
• A lesion that remains. The scan showing the old injury, without its effects, answers the objection that the injury was exaggerated.
• Answered prayer, read in biblical terms. "The supplication of a righteous man availeth much in its working" (James 5:16, ASV). The healing is God's; the recognition attributes it to Hernández's intercession, which Protestant readers will read differently.
• Honest limits. The records are not public and survival of such wounds is possible. Deploy it as one strand in a cumulative case. See Argument from Miracles.
• How to deploy it. Lead with the delay, the tissue loss and the surgeon's prognosis, concede that survival happens, and press the question of how a child recovers fully, with no deficit, ten days after losing part of her brain.

See also

• Miracles, master hub
• _schema, the vetting standard this entry follows
• Juan Manuel Gutierrez (Frassati 2017), another recent miracle approved for a lay saint
• Valeria Valverde (Carlo Acutis 2022), another recovery from a severe head injury approved by the Vatican
• Argument from Miracles, the argument this case supports
• David Hume, whose standard for credible miracle testimony this case presses on
• Naturalism, the worldview such cases press against