Healers' faith
73% of doctors in poll say miracles can happen
By MEG JONES
mjones@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Dec. 21, 2004
If anyone believes in miracles, it would probably be the people who see the entire range of human life from birth to death regularly - doctors.
So perhaps it's not surprising that an overwhelming majority of physicians say they believe that miracles occur.
In a national survey of 1,100 physicians released this week, 74% said they believe that miracles have happened in the past and 73% believe they can occur.
Whether it's a terminal patient making a full recovery, someone waking up from a coma or a girl surviving rabies, doctors say they have seen things their scientific background and medical training cannot explain.
"Sometimes despite what we do or in spite of what we do, people get better, and I think they get better because of the hand of God," said Mushir Hassan, an internal medicine specialist at Elmbrook Memorial Hospital who is Muslim.
Carl Olson, a radiation oncologist at Columbia St. Mary's, has treated cancer patients for almost 30 years. He has seen his share of things he can't explain.
"If you define a miracle as something that happens beyond scientific and medical explanation, there's no question in my mind there have been events that have happened over my many years as an oncologist that defy explanation," said Olson, who is Protestant...cont'd
http://www.jsonline.com/alive/news/dec04/286243.asp