sábado, 7 de abril de 2018

LYMPHEDEMA / LYMPHOEDEMA - THE MAUREEN DIGAN CLINICAL CASE - LYMPHEDEMA STORIES


Although science forecasts for the near future great breakthroughs toward resolving diseases of the lymphatic circulatory system, to this day no definitive treatment is known. Surprising is, therefore, the following facts that once drew worldwide attention.

On the 30th of April 2000, by the mediation of Pope John Paul II, the Vatican canonized Blessed Faustina, recognizing the intercession and supernatural cure of a person with Lymphedema. The case of the North American lady Maureen Digan, born with Primary lymphedema (Milroy Disease), was accepted after the recognition of 5 independent medical specialists, and several years of intense ecclesiastical research, as something inexplicable to science, and miraculous for the church.

There is no medical explanation for Maureen’s healing, lymphedema is a chronic disease due to a permanent blockage in the lymphatic system which prevents fluid from draining and causes a fluid buildup and complications due to the swelling. Even though the majority of Lymphedema can be controlled with compression treatment, there is still no cure and unfortunately, it does not respond to medication and does not go into remission.

Maureen Digan, who already had lost one leg to lymphedema due to the infections, recalled that when she was healed she felt an instant change in her leg. At Faustina’s tomb, she said that all of a sudden she could feel the leg changing, she stuffed her shoe with a napkin so it wouldn't fall off, however, she waited until she was back in her hotel room to check her leg. When she did, her swollen leg which was also due to be amputated shortly, was back to its original size, it looked normal and the swelling and pain were gone, her disease disappeared completely.

The Vatican institutes stringent guidelines for what constitutes a miracle. A cure must be sudden, complete, lasting, and—most importantly—inexplicable by contemporary science. The Church privileges medical testimony, which scrutinizes the evidence submitted concerning facts and dates. Very few alleged miracles make it past the Consulta Medica, as the body is called. In miracle tribunals, a cure is assumed natural until proven otherwise, a position arrived at through a lengthy process of elimination, which is centered on a forensic, even skeptical, approach to the assertion, argument, and interpretation. When the tribunal thinks its work is complete, its members seal all documents in a ceremony and send them to Rome.

As to the ultimate cause of Maureen Digan's spontaneous regression of lymphedema, the judgment was unanimous: her cure was quick, complete, lasting, and inexplicable to science. Her case was well evidenced, well-proven, well documented, and well biopsied that she suffered an incurable disease.

Even when a supernatural phenomenon is determined by the Church to be the real thing, it can take years to authenticate. This particular event was accepted by the Sacred Congregation for the Cause of Saints in 1991 as the miracle needed for Faustina’s beatification, which took place on April 18, 1993. (Her canonization was on April 30, 2000).

References:
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    INFORMATION ON LYMPHEDEMA

    (Click on the texts to read the research articles)

    SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES

    PATHOPHYSIOLOGY

    CUTANEOUS COMPLICATIONS
    INFECTIOUS COMPLICATIONS
    CELLULITIS / DERMATOLYMPHANGIOADENITIS
    TUMOURS

    TREATMENT

    COMPRESSION GARMENTS

    DISABILITY

    DISFIGUREMENT

    PSYCHOSOCIAL IMPACT

    PEDIATRIC LYMPHEDEMA

    LYMPHATIC FILARIASIS / PODOCONIOSIS



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