Every so often, a story like this will pop up.
“Half the patients are dead within 12 months of diagnosis. The overall survival at several years out is felt to be 2, maybe 5 percent,” says Dr. Henry Friedman, a neurooncologist at Duke University.
But despite long odds, Delbridge underwent surgery, radiation and painful chemotherapy. And while putting his trust in doctors at Duke University Hospital, Delbridge also put his faith in God.
Members of Delbridge’s church prayed for him daily. He and his family asked for divine intervention.
“I prayed for a miracle, I really did. I said, ‘God, I know you can do it,’ ” says Andy’s wife, Nancy.
“The minute you think that you have no hope, you are down for the count. So you’ve got to always think there’s hope,” says Andy.
Today Delbridge is cancer free. Not only is the brain tumor gone, so are the growths that had appeared near his heart. They simply disappeared, without surgery.
To a skeptic agnostic like myself, this seems a little sketchy. I’m sure doctors could come up with some proven medical explanation that would be met by skepticism by the religious.
It’s a separate problem that, in our society, a coincidental combination of body chemicals would seem less plausible than an all-powerful man living up in the sky. After all, many feel that way about the Big Bang – that creationism is actually a more reasonable choice.
I’d like these people’s offspring to please remind them to take their medication.
Seriously, though, without any definitive medical explanation thusfar (and the theistic Miracle rejected for sheer idiocy) we’re left with little explanation for the eradication of this man’s cancer.
As a humanist, I always think that people are more powerful than we even know – and this is right down my alley. I believe our brains are capable of far more than we conciously know, and the placebo effect (you know, false medication having the similar affects as the real medication, so long as the patient is tricked into believing they are real medication) is a great example that I wish would be explored more.
Is it possible that is what at work here? This man was so confident that a god was going to rescue him that his brain, convinced of the faith, healed the cancer itself? It’s worked for other sicknesses.
Perhaps our own bodies have the power to cure cancer… it just must be properly harnessed.
Isn’t that an encouraging thought?
Andrew Quinn blogs regularly at Verité.
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