Historical family letter, September 1976, signed David, Barbara, Karl and Roell Ann. Medical statements and religious interpretations are the correspondents’ contemporary account, not current medical advice or an independently verified clinical assessment.
Dear Friends, • We have the most incredible news to share with you. Roell Ann has been cured of Neuroblastoma Solid Tumor Cancer! Yes! Its true! We’re not drunk! Maybe delerious with JOY! Certainly higher than we have ever been. The words of the Father rejoicing at the return of his prodigal son are crashing upon us with overwhelming reality as we realize that our daughter is free — free at last. Indeed, we are free — free to have a future — free to go into crowds as a family, to visit the zoo, to go to a flick, etc. Perhaps a brief sketch of the past eleven months is in order.
In June 1975 RoelI incurred her second urinary tract infection within 10 months. Dr. Steven Plax, our pediatrician, suggested we have a urologist examine her; we picked out Dr. Herbert Sunshine (because of his name) but did not do anything about it until mid-July 1975 when at her annual physical, Dr. Plax reiterated strongly his recommendation that we contact Dr. Sunshine. On.July 28th, two days after Roell’s 3rd birthday, exploratory IVP X-Rays checked out her plumbing and turned up a “normal” bladder and “unremarkable” uretha and kidneys. However, a “bothersome” incidental finding was a 3 cm calcified mass’in the area of the right adrenal gland.” After several delays due to staph and viral infections, on 9 SEPT. exploratory surgery found 100% malignancy (in all lymph glands examined and an estimate of millions of undifferentiated Neuroblastoma tumor cells) rather than the benign tumor everyone had hoped and seemed 99% sure (before the operation) was there.
Because the cancer was inoperable at the time, Dr. Vita Land and the Pediatric —Oncology Group of St. Louis Childrens Hospital guesstimated that Roell was no more than a Stage III Neuroblastoma patient with a 50-50 chance — maybe a little less, maybe a bit more — since this particular solid tumor type is considered old in anyone over the age of 1 year at time of diagnosis.
We went thru 20 days of Radiation Therapy. Thereafter we bega n in NOV 1975 a projected 18 to 24-month cycle of Chemo-Therapy. On June 7, 1976, Dr. Land told us that Roell’s 2nd operation was scheduled for June 22nd. We got very depressed and were filled with foreboding since Roell was feeling so well and we have even secured permission to travel to North-Central Minnesota on Vacation this summer. The Oncology team insisted the sole reason for the surgery was to assess what their therapies had effected and to hopefully find the tumors in an operable state for surgical removal; the theory was that surgery was to remove as many of the tumors as possible since Roell had already received 2/3rds of the amount of adriamycin that her body would tolerate without permanent heart damage and if they could now surgically remove several million tumor cells, then the last 1/3rd of adriamycin would hopefully have only a few dozen or so — “juvenile delinquent” neuroblastoma cells to contend with.
After the operation, Dr. Larry O’Neal, adrenal gland surgical special list, told us he had removed the calcified mass (later we were told this constituted about 1/3rd of the adrenal plus about 4 lymph gland), but we would have to wait 48 hours or so for the pathology report.
ARE YOU READY??? On Wednesday night Dr. Donoso, a resident in Pediatric Oncology—Hematology, told David’s mother that the proliminary pathyology on the lymph nodes was negative and that was a very good sign. Barbara and David agreed but we remembered too well the expectations of a benign tumor on the evening of 8 SEPT 1975. Finally the Mountain Moved, at 3:40 p.m. Friday 25 June 1976: Dr. Vita Land told an incredulous father that the preliminary negative pathology had not only been confirmed but that in all samples tested there was zero (0%) tumor cells!!! And even better news came next: in the adrenal area mass removed 3 things had been found: (I) calcification, (2) fibrosity, and, gloriously, (3) a few ganglion cells! Yes, the undifferentiated neuroblast malignant cells had differentiated into wholesome, healthy, lovely, good, ganglion cells which we all have as part of our cellular structure! The next bit of info made my joy bittersweet: Dr. Land said the Oncology team could not be “cocky” enough to take credit for Roell’s cure since there was no evidence that any of the therapies or surgeries had done anything to effect it. A paragraph or two later she was quick to add that there was also no evidence that prayers (YOURS and ours) had effected the cure either. Barbara and David feel we know better; we know that what the hundreds, indeed, thousands of people, priests, ministers, sisters and brothers, marriage encounter couples, charismatics, neighbors, fellow parishioners, friends, relatives, etc., have been praying for has occurred 7-• a miraculous cure. Oh, to be sure, other neuroblastoma patients who were also over age 1 year at time of diagnosis have experienced differentiation as well, but the statistical probability of this occuring in Roe11’s case was a carrot that the Oncology team not only did not hold out to us but did not even allow themselves to consider.
We know that all your prayers and especially those every Thursday afternoon at Merton House with Sister Mary Margaret McKenzie and Dr. Francis MacNutt O.P. (author of Healing) as well as the weekly St. Roch Wednesday Evening Prayer Group with Sharon Nelsen have resulted in this healing of Roell Ann Schmidt. Whether the Lord Jesus Christ used the Oncology Team at Children’s Hospital to kill off 99% of the malignant tumor cells with radiation and drugs so that a few of those cells could differentiate into ganglion cells, or whether the millions of malignant cells simply vanished, we will never know. We can only rejoice for Roell and ourselves and hope that her cure will give hope to all the other children and their parents who sit like the condemned in a death-house row every Tuesday at the Private Doctors Office awaiting the results of the blood counting machines. We ask further that you do not cease your prayers for Roell since it is almost 100% certain that she has been sterlized due to the Radiation Therapy and has an enlarged heart due to the severe anemia brought on by the Chemo-Therapy (Hopefully the heart condition will correct itself as her blood counts climb over the next months with no chemo-therapy drugs ravaging same). In other words, while Barbara and David are sure that God did not cure Roell (with or without the Oncology Team at Children’s Hospital) just in order to let her perish of the above and other side-effects of the therapies, we ask your continued prayers for her.
Even now it’s eerie that peace David experienced after demanding on a Sunday last October at Mass that Father in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ cure his daughter and the statement of fact that Roell uttered in our kitchen last November to Barbara that “God told me that I’m going to get well.” Prophetic gift is alive and well even if dark nights of our souls intercede periodically to cause us to doubt the obvious truth— that God does not want anyone to suffer or experience pain!
Love, David, Barbara, Karl and Roell Ann
P.S. A special thanks to all those who donated to the Roell Ann Schmidt Fund. The $1700.00 that was raised certainly relieved our anxieties about the medical bills and buoyed our often sagging spirits to realize how many friends Roell has.
Originally published in The Paper, September 1976.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Archival transcription note: David’s possible identity as existingDavidG.F.Schmidt is unverified; no merge made. Printed family signature preserved; Mrs.BarbaraSchmidt profile used provisionally, as for earlier family correspondence. Apparent medical/religious claims are the original correspondents’ statements.
Original source: SD_Times1976_09.pdf, printed page(s) 2, 7; PDF page(s) 2, 7.
