Article May 27, 2002 Issue

A pediatrician's story of prayer and healing

By Beena Kanani

I HAD BEEN A MEDICAL DOCTOR and pediatrician for five years when in 1976 my teacher in Jerbai Wadia Hospital in Bombay gave up medicine and took up Christian Science. I was curious about this dramatic decision, so I learned a little bit about the religion she had decided to follow. My interest was simply cursory, and I hadn't learned much about it.

But when my son, Harin, was about five years old, he became very sick. I made a diagnosis of tuberculous meningitis based on his symptoms and signs. I had treated this disease many times in my medical practice, and I was now very frightened, seeing my own child suffering from it. I didn't want to have the usual invasive tests done on him, mainly because I knew that the medical treatment would not hold out much hope for him. I guess you could say that I was running away from having the truth about his illness confirmed.

In desperation, I called my former teacher. I knew that she was now some sort of spiritual healer, though I didn't know much about what she actually did. But at that point I was ready to try anything that could help my son. This particular disease is considered dreadful. Either the child dies or is left with a neurological deficit.

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