Mesothelioma healing miracle came from the hand of God
By Mark Ellis, Special to ASSIST News Service
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA (ANS - August 6, 2015)
--He thought he had a stubborn case of bronchitis, but when he couldn’t
make it up a staircase without stopping to catch his breath, he knew
something wasn’t right.
“My wife said to go to a doctor
and he discovered I had mesothelioma,” says Leon Freitag,
superintendent of the North Dakota district of the Assemblies of God
Church.
Mesothelioma – always
considered malignant — is a rare cancer usually caused by exposure to
asbestos. Sufferers face a grim prognosis and cures are extremely rare.
Apparently, construction work as a carpenter in the 1970s exposed him to
the deadly fibrous crystals that embedded in his lungs.
Freitag sought out the top
mesothelioma doctor in the U.S., affiliated with Brigham and Women’s
Hospital in Boston. “He let me know there is no cure and all they can do
is manage it the best they can.”
Another oncologist told him the
cancer was advanced – stage four – and he had a year to a year and a
half to live. “I had a large tumor on top of my left lung, laying over
the aorta. I had another tumor in the lower part of the lung and lesions
all along the left side.”
They thought the larger tumor
might be growing into his aorta, which is why they ordered four chemo
treatments over three months.
After the oncologist delivered
the grim prognosis, Freitag told him, “I feel in my heart I’m going to
say to you in a few months, ‘But God…’
“I know, I know,” the doctor said curtly, and quickly left the room.
Freitag met with a gathering of
ministers and district council delegates and told them: “I don’t know
if God will chose to heal me or not. I know He is sovereign. I am
prepared to live it out, one way or another.”
As the disease progressed, the
tumors began to produce fluid in the pleura, the lining of his lungs.
“They drew off two liters at a time, but told me they couldn’t keep
doing this,” apparently because of the danger of collapsing a lung.
Sure enough, on their third
attempt to draw fluid, his lung collapsed. “They tried to inflate it,
but couldn’t get it to stay up,” he notes. They finally got his left
lung partially inflated, only two weeks before he was scheduled for
surgery in Boston.
About the writer: Mark Ellis is senior correspondent for the ASSIST News Service and also the founder of www.Godreports.com, a
website that shares stories, testimonies and videos from the church
around the world to build interest and involvement in world missions.
** You may republish this and any of our ANS stories with attribution to the ASSIST News Service (www.assistnews.net)
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