James Rhio O'Connor Essay

Conquering the Malicious Mesothelioma
by: Youngjoon Choi

Receiving an expiration date on one’s life is no pleasant news, but James Rhio O’Connor experienced exactly this when he was diagnosed with Mesothelioma, a cancer of the membranous sac that lines the internal body cavities. Given a prognosis of less than one year to live, conventional treatments of surgery and chemotherapy would have proven risky or futile, since the cancerous tumor was located near his spine and chemotherapy would not significantly affect either his quality of life or lifespan. Regardless of these facts, Mr. O’Connor faithfully gathered as much information about his condition as possible, working with professional clinicians to find a way to beat the odds. By taking over 100 daily supplements, changing his diet, exercising, and believing in something greater than himself, Mr. O’Connor outlived his prognosis by over 7 years.

Mr. O’Connor’s story of his battle with mesothelioma reminds me yet again of the power of the human mind. Humans all across the world are pushing themselves to the limit, from the Olympic runner who trains many hours to break a world record to the medical researcher who often works many years to develop a new drug. Although these three people seem unrelated at first, their common strength is in their focused determination to achieve a goal or dream regardless of what the opposition tells them. The mind is a powerful control and regulatory device that maintains all the vital functions in the human body, including the immune system’s response to diseases, while controlling others to aid survival. Patients who have a hopeless outlook on even the most easily treatable disease have less of a surviving chance than the ones who fight to the end despite an unpromising future. And this is precisely the key component of Mr. O’Connor’s amazing survival. In Mr. O’Connor’s adverse situation, I would have initially faced the temptation to give into the course of the disease and remain thankful that I had lived 60 years thus far. Yet, maintaining a positive mentality would prove crucial to my long term health. Like Mr. O’Connor, I would have researched the disease and changed my lifestyle to optimize my chances for survival. However, I would strongly reiterate and emphasize Mr. O’Connor’s “belief in something greater than himself”, attributed as one of his many reasons for survival past his prognosis.

Self-reliance is an admirable characteristic in most cultures, as the self-made man is more appealing than one who was given aid. Those who believe that “self-reliance is crucial” see self-worth in one’s unassisted performance in adverse situations. Nowadays, this ideal is often seen in the medical community, where a doctor who discovers a revolutionary cure is lauded the most if the discovery came about by his or her own personal research. Although humans have definitely made leaping bounds and accomplishments in many fields, including medicine and technology, there is certainly a limit to what people can do in the healing process. The doctor can physically operate on a patient, but the patient’s body is responsible for prevailing over the disease. I believe that this amazingly intricate system, by which our body heals itself with red and white blood cells and proteins and enzymes, was not designed by evolution over trillions of years, but by God.

The mention of God today in the medical community, and even the scientific community, is highly frowned upon, yet my convictions have always stood. If doctors were to ask me how I wished to undergo treatment, I would ask advice from loved ones around me such as family and friends, and I would certainly look into available modern day treatments and the related statistics. But I would look beyond the numbers, which changes daily in the medical community from numerous miraculous survival accounts, and ask for relatives who believe to pray for my healing in the battle against mesothelioma. Contrary to popular conception, I don’t believe that having faith in the healing power of prayer is irrelevant and completely separate from trusting in medicinal science. Having faith is believing in something that has not happened yet, while science is a system by which humans attempt to explain naturally occurring phenomena. So combining the two ideas is simply giving credit where credit is due, which is certainly the right course of action.

Through Mr. O’Connor’s story, I was led to reaffirm my belief in the importance of one’s mental attitude towards an insurmountable goal, and to put my faith in something above science and medicine. The mind is the one of the greatest and most powerful tools the human body has been equipped with, and through the loving support of one’s friends and family, combined with a healthy lifestyle, a positive and optimistic mental attitude, prayer, and cough drops, all challenges can be overcome, one at a time.