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THE courage and steadfast faith of a doctor who suffered from breast cancer 10 years ago helped a physician see his practice in a more positive light.
“I had this patient who came here as a recurrent sometime 10 years ago. She was a doctor,” said Dr. Dennis Ramon M. Tudtud, director of the Cancer Center Institute at the Perpetual Succour Hospital.
For someone who had cancer, especially one who is a doctor, Tudtud said she “was a woman of great faith, ” who told him in no uncertain terms that she would be healed of the fatal disease.
Cancer is a general term used for diseases that are characterized by the uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells.
These cancer cells can spread through the bloodstream or the lymphatic system to reach different parts of the body.
Tudtud said his woman patient-doctor's faith is an unusual attitude, for physicians by nature are not demonstrative of great faith when it comes to cancer.
“We know the realities of treating a cancer patient, the difficulties and the options available for treatment because of financial constraint,” he said.
The doctor said he observed that his ailing female colleague would usually pray before they perform the medical treatments prescribed for her.
Tudtud said he gets goosebumps whenever he remembers her statement about getting well.
Even through the pain of chemotherapy, he said she responded very well to treatment.
“She really opened my eyes, that there is really something beyond what we know.
Miracles occur in many ways and this was one big miracle for her and for me too. We just have to open our eyes. We just have to have great faith,” Tudtud added.
Even if the cancer-stricken doctor died three years later, Tudtud said she touched other people's lives by helping them gain their own spirituality.
“What I remember distinctly from her sharings was 'You are never given by God vision beyond that which is on the step you're on. He gives you light enough to see, not to stumble,” he added.
Tudtud said in the treatment of cancer, miracles do come in many ways.
“Aside from surgical healing, there is healing of the family, forgiveness of others, for their enemies,” he said.
“It is a journey. Espouse the life of survivorship, living your life a full circle,” Tudtud added. Editorial Assistant Ma. Bernadette A. Parco
