Indian woman wanted to cancel her life-saving surgery
A highly concentrated atmosphere in the operating room. A team led by surgeons Dr. Benjamin Zeier and Lukas Steffen operates on a 61-year-old Quechua patient. The tumor in the right kidney is large. And still in the last days before the procedure, the woman lost a lot of blood through the urinary tract. Removal of the kidney along with the tumor is her only chance of long-term survival. But by a hair’s breadth, the surgery would not have taken place.
On the journey to the mission hospital, the cancer patient had met a person who meant a bad omen. She would not be able to escape her dark fate. Surgical treatment would therefore be completely pointless. Hospital pastor Marco Acuña came to her bedside and entrusted the frightened patient to God’s care. Finally, Susana Huamani* agreed to the procedure.
Superstition is not only a phenomenon of the Mountain Indians. Friday the 13th and a black cat on the roadside, the unfavorable horoscope and the bad hunches when laying the tarot cards. Millions of enlightened Europeans and US-Americans are guided by a misconception that comes in a thousand and one variations.
The Bible says that God can set us free from all superstitious attachments and dependencies. We are to trust our Creator and no one else.
The patient is scheduled to be discharged home today, Monday. (*name changed)
