‘With prayer,’ woman makes malignant tumor disappear
Three months after hospital staff gave up on her, Therese Daoud showed up cancer-free; it’s unprecedented, doctor says
To the amazement of her doctors at Ichilov Hospital, who recommended that her leg be amputated to rid her body of a massive malignant tumor, an Israeli woman managed to “pray away” the cancerous growth, Channel 2 reported.
“I felt pain in my leg, in my ankle, with swelling,” the woman, Therese Daoud, said in an interview aired Friday night.
“They did an x-ray and found a large tumor, about the size of an orange, something that’s visible from 10 meters away,” said her doctor at the hospital, Professor Jacob Bickels.
Daoud, who teaches high school science, was told that the growth was malignant and growing at a rapid rate. Her doctor set an initial date for surgery to amputate part of her leg, but the surgery was postponed twice.
When the third date came along, Daoud, who lives in the Druze town of Usfiya, canceled the appointment herself.
“They tell me that Therese’s mother got sick right before her hospitalization date and that she wanted to be by her side,” a senior doctor at the hospital told Channel 2. “She canceled the surgery and said that if the surgery had been put off three times it must mean she doesn’t need it.
“It was obvious to me that it wouldn’t be long before she’d die,” the doctor continued. “She’s a smart, educated, sane woman, and if someone makes that kind of a decision when they’re fully aware of its significance, we respect her.”
But three months after receiving her death sentence, Daoud showed up in Bickels’s office.
“I asked her what happened, and she smiled broadly and said, ‘I prayed.'” Bickels said. “I sent her to get an x-ray and the tumor had reduced in size dramatically. It’s unheard-of; such a [reduction in the] tumor is unprecedented. I’ve never seen nor heard of such a thing happening.”
A biopsy revealed that not only had the tumor shrunken, but that there was no longer any trace of cancer in Daoud’s body.
“I didn’t feel sick; I projected to everyone that I wasn’t sick,” she said. “Every time I prayed I felt peaceful and secure. I had fear, but I had tranquility as well.”