BOGALUSA n "I don't know why God chose to heal me. I guess He knew I had a big mouth and I'd tell it," opined Delores ‘Dody' Champagne.
Dody was talking about what she calls a miracle that occurred in 2003 when a cancerous tumor in her chest simply disappeared while the doctors were preparing to treat it with aggressive therapy. Only a scar emerges on x-rays and CAT scans where once a portentous tumor appeared. Her prognosis went from perhaps "a few months to live" to "no signs of cancer."
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Reports said that many were healed, some had their rosaries turn gold and all who went were blessed. Dody heard the reports and told her husband Emile, "I'd give anything in the world if my rosary would turn gold."
Dody wanted badly to go to Medjugorie, but flying made her deathly ill, so she stayed home. When Marija came to the U.S. in 1988-1989 to donate a kidney to her brother who was here to get a kidney transplant, Champagne determined that she would make the trip to Birmingham where visions of the Blessed Mother continued to occur.
Dody and her husband made the trip to Birmingham along with her sister and brother-in-law. Marija told those gathered on a hillside that a lot of sick people were there and their faith would heal them. While Dody was not sick at the time, both Emile and her brother-in-law had some health concerns. Since that time both have undergone medical procedures on the heart and have come through well. She believes their faith enhanced their recoveries.
The next day Dody and her sister returned to the hill. Dody said they saw the sun turn purple and fall from the sky but before it struck the hill, it reasscended. This happened several times and all of those present did not see the phenomenon.
Several people with Polaroid cameras tried to take pictures of the purple sun. To everyone's surprise the pictures showed religious scenes instead of a purple sun. The pictures were of the body of Christ, the tomb, the cross and Mary, Joseph and Jesus, Dody said.
While no one but Marija ever saw the Virgin Mary, Dody said they could all "feel her presence."
"We all fell to our knees, no matter what Christian denomination, we all felt the same presence," Dody noted. "All of us were there to receive a blessing and I believe we all did."
That day while Dody prayed, her rosary turned gold. The rosary, one she has owned since she was a small child, had pink beads strung together with silver wires, a silver medal, and a silver crucifix. After that day on the hill, the wires and medal turned gold; only the cross remains silver.
According to Dody, though, the undisputed miracle occurred earlier this year. She has had respiratory problems for some time and was under the treatment of a pulmonary specialist. She began to have flu-like symptoms shortly before Thanksgiving last year. They would get bad and then better in a sort of monthly cycle. Every time she would see her pulmonary specialist, the symptoms would be at the good end of the cycle so she simply told Dody to continue treatment for those problems with her family doctor.
Then Dody, who had a portable oxygen tank to treat flare-ups of emphysema, became oxygen dependent and started losing weight. When she began to cough up blood, she decided it was time to return to the specialist. This time, she had a coughing fit in the office and spit up blood.
The specialist was alarmed and sent her for an x-ray. Not liking the way it looked, she scheduled an immediate CAT scan. That too looked suspicious and so a PET scan was scheduled.
Within a few days, the doctor told Dody that she had a large malignant tumor in her right lung.
"She told me she was 99.9 percent sure I had cancer," Dody said. "She told me I had anywhere from two months to five years to live depending on whether the cancer turned out to be the fast growing kind. I told her, ‘That's not very long; I have too much to do.'"
Dody said God provided her the strength to accept the diagnosis and begin putting her affairs in order after the doctor told her neither chemo nor surgery were options for someone with her health problems. The doctor concluded that radiation might be a possibility.
A needle biopsy of the tumor proved inconclusive since not enough fluid was extracted, Dody said. Her lung doctor consulted with a cancer specialist and told Dody she needed to begin radiation immediately.
"You don't have two weeks to spare until the cancer doctor can get back from vacation," she was told.
Dody was scheduled for radiation but the doctor there told her she was afraid to give her treatments because they could put her in bed for the rest of her life. However, after consulting with four specialists in Baton Rouge, the radiation doctor decided to proceed and give Dody small doses of radiation aimed directly at the tumor.
By this time, Dody's family was beginning to question the specialists and recommended Dody go to MD Anderson in Houston. Even though it would mean waiting beyond the week her doctor said Dody could spare, she decided to go.
After doing a battery of tests, a surgeon at MD Anderson told Dody, "I know you have cancer, but it's a strange cancer. It is not round like most lung cancers. You need an operation but because of your health that is not an option."
The doctors told Dody that she needed more tests before they could decide how to treat the cancer, but they wanted to wait five days before giving them. She and her family returned to Bogalusa, where unbeknownst to her family, Dody began to put her affairs in order.
She got her hair done and bought a dress that would be adequate for burial. She had her picture taken so her family would have a photo appropriate for an obituary. She picked out a headstone. She then wrote letters to her family, telling of her preparations and saying her good-byes.
On Saturday evening she went to Mass. Sitting in her pew, holding her golden rosary, Dody prayed to Jesus. She told him she was ready to go but to please let her come directly to him. According to her sister and daughter who were sitting on either side of Dody, while she prayed the gold connecting her rosary beads glowed.
Deacon Hartman prayed over Dody and told her he felt she was healed. Father Law asked a special blessing for the sick as well. Sometime during these prayers, Dody's portable oxygen tank, on which she was now totally dependent, went off. She did not know this until later in the car, she told her husband she felt like she was getting less air than usual. When they checked, the tank was off, but Dody said it can only be turned off using a key and no one had used a key.
"That was the first sign that God was doing something," Dody said.
When Dody returned to Houston the following Tuesday, they decided to do another needle biopsy. She was half asleep from medicine they had given her and thought she was hallucinating when she heard the doctor murmur, "I can't find it [the tumor.]"
Then he asked her, "What treatment are you taking for your cancer?"
"Just prayers," she replied.
She said she had asked for all of the churches in Bogalusa to pray for her the previous Sunday. While her church was already praying, she felt concerted prayer by other Christians could only help.
"God is in our church, but He might be in their church stronger than in mine, so I asked them to pray," Dody admitted.
The doctors assumed Dody's tumor was hidden behind the heart. The doctor decided to do a bronchosopy, a test ruled out in Louisiana because they felt it was too risky. This test too came back negative.
In the end, the doctors told Dody, "There is no sign of cancer in your body. You have no cancer and no tumor."
When Dody returned home, her pulmonary doctor ran further tests to make certain. She could not believe the tumor had simply vanished. When the tests showed only a scar where the tumor had been, the doctor told Dody, "You are my five year miracle. I can't believe it."
"I don't know why God chose to heal me. I'm not perfect and He knows that. I feel like the more I tell this the more people will turn back to God. Maybe that is why. I had lots of trouble before, but I could handle those things. This, I knew I couldn't handle. I thought of how Jesus suffered and I knew my suffering was nothing in comparison. I was ready to go be with Him, but for some reason he chose to heal me and leave me here. All I know to do is to tell my story to anyone who will listen."
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