Healing of Benedicta McCarthy from Acetaminophen Poisoning

Liver returned to normal size and function; renal function restored; full recovery without transplant or identifiable medical cause

Benedicta McCarthy was born on August 8, 1984 — one day before the anniversary of Edith Stein's death at Auschwitz. She had been named Teresia Benedicta after Edith Stein's religious name, and her family held a particular devotion to the soon-to-be-beatified Carmelite nun and martyr.

On March 20, 1987, Benedicta, then two and a half years old, discovered sample packets of acetaminophen (Tylenol) that she mistook for candy. She consumed what physicians later estimated to be approximately 19 times the lethal dose for a child her size. When her condition deteriorated rapidly, she was rushed to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, where she came under the care of Dr. Ronald Kleinman, a pediatric gastroenterologist.

Her prognosis was catastrophic. Her liver had swollen to more than double its normal size. Her kidneys were failing, and a staph infection compounded the crisis. Without a liver transplant, physicians saw no path to survival — but transplant was not feasible under the circumstances. She slipped into a coma, and her doctors gave the family little hope.

Her father, Emmanuel Charles McCarthy, a priest of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, organized family and friends in prayer, invoking specifically the intercession of Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, whose beatification had taken place on May 1, 1987. The family prayed an urgent and sustained intercession.

The recovery was abrupt. Benedicta regained consciousness and her organ function normalized. Her liver returned to a normal size without transplant and without any medical intervention the physicians could point to as the cause. She was discharged from Massachusetts General Hospital fully recovered, with no lasting damage.

Dr. Kleinman, who is Jewish and described by Catholic press accounts as personally skeptical of miracles, testified before the Vatican's Congregation for the Causes of Saints for nearly five hours. He stated before the panel that Benedicta's recovery was miraculous and that he could not medically explain what had occurred.

The Congregation convened a tribunal of eight physicians and clergy to examine the case. They voted unanimously that a miracle had occurred. Pope John Paul II formally recognized the miracle on April 8, 1997. This recognition cleared the path to Edith Stein's canonization, which took place on October 11, 1998.

Benedicta McCarthy later recounted the episode publicly. In an ABC News interview, she described the moment she began to recover: "I started to move my toes and everything came back normal. Like there was no gradual recovery."