Healing of Audrey Toguchi from Metastatic Liposarcoma

Spontaneous regression of bilateral lung metastases without treatment; complete remission confirmed May and October 1999

Audrey Toguchi was a retired schoolteacher from Hawaii. In 1997 she was diagnosed with liposarcoma — a rare and aggressive cancer arising in fat cells. In January 1998, surgeons removed a tumor from her left thigh, but post-operative imaging revealed the cancer had already spread to both lungs. Her physician, Dr. Walter Chang, told her plainly that no one had survived this form of metastatic cancer and that it would kill her.

Toguchi declined chemotherapy. She turned instead to prayer, and traveled to Kalaupapa — the former leper settlement on Molokai where Father Damien had lived and died — and prayed at his grave, asking for his intercession.

Approximately one month after surgery, around February 1998, an X-ray showed the lung tumors had decreased in size without any treatment. Monthly imaging over the following months showed continued regression. By May 1999, scans found no evidence of cancer anywhere in her body. A follow-up examination in October 1999 confirmed the same result. No medical explanation was offered for the remission.

The case was submitted to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. On June 2, 2008, the Congregation voted to recommend Damien for sainthood. On July 3, 2008, Pope Benedict XVI signed the decree confirming the healing as a miracle, promulgated by Cardinal José Saraiva Martins. Father Damien was canonized on October 11, 2009, in Rome, with King Albert II of Belgium and Queen Paola among those attending.