We all know the story of Tiny Tim from Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol-the sickly son of Bob Cratchit who is miraculously cured of his illness at the end of the story. As inspirational as fictional stories like this may be, there's nothing like the real thing. Throughout history, people have been cured or avoided certain death without medical explanation. In the spirit of the holiday season, here's an account of the most amazing medical miracles that are sure to warm your heart.

A heart healing delivery. Roseann Errante was seven months pregnant with triplets when she began experiencing chest pain. Despite an initial medical examination revealing nothing, the pain persisted. On her next visit, doctors found a tear in her aorta, a potentially deadly condition. The Errante's, of Long Island, NY, faced a difficult scenario-doctors would need to perform an emergency caesarian section followed immediately by open heart surgery to repair the damaged aorta. Errante went in for surgery and came out with three healthy children and a mended heart.

Donating in a different way. This year in Puyallup, Washington, an extra special donation was made. John Valdez, a loving husband and father, suffered from kidney disease and required transplant surgery in order to be cured. During a routine trip to a local retail store, Valdez met John Del Vecchio, a signing Santa for the deaf community, not knowing that this stranger would soon have a hand in saving his life.  Upon hearing about Valdez's circumstance, Del Vecchio granted him a Christmas wish. Del Vecchio's wife, who was already planning on donating a kidney, volunteered to give hers to Valdez. The two went in for a successful surgery early this December.

Vanishing act.  Brandon Connor is just like any other 7-year-old kid. He plays with trains and wrestles around with his older brother, Ryan. However, while Brandon was still in utero, doctors found a lump growing near his spine and diagnosed him with neuroblastoma-a deadly form of childhood cancer-shortly after birth.  Because of the risk of paralysis from surgery, doctors decided to hold of on operating as long as possible, while monitoring the mass. Still, the mass grew larger, and just after Brandon's second birthday, his parents decided to take action. Brandon was admitted to the University of California at San Francisco to undergo surgery to remove the mass, but to everyone's surprise and relief, just before beginning the operation, the doctors found no remaining signs of the tumor.