‘I always give thanks’

The story of a cancer doctor’s own incredible medical, spiritual and emotional battle against the disease

By Lisa Benoit | Hawaii Catholic Herald

In 1987, Wailuku-born Dr. Edward Jim at age 57 was one of the Hawaii’s top head and neck cancer surgeons. It was in February of that year, while on a mainland trip, that he noticed blood in his urine while using an airport bathroom.

It was an ominous sign.

That day began a 15-year trial that would alter the course of his life -- one that would lead him through 12 bouts of his own cancer, a spiritual conversion, the discovery of the depth of marital love and a miracle or two.

Initially, his wife was more concerned about the presence of blood than he was.

Ed met Mardie 36 years ago while he was in training at St. Vincent Medical Center in New York City and she was the head nurse in the open-heart unit. Mardie knew that blood in the urine was not good.

Although he spent countless hours in the hospital caring for others, it would be five months before he heeded his wife’s pleas to get himself checked.

Her instincts were correct. Doctors discovered in Dr. Jim’s kidney a tumor that extended into a major blood vessel in his heart, a condition called tumor thrombus.

“Fortunately, they were able to pull it out,” Dr. Jim said. “I recovered and went back to work. Everything was fine.”

But it wasn’t. Only 14 months later, in October 1988, during a follow up chest x-ray, his doctor found spots on his lungs. It was a type of cancer that does not respond to chemotherapy.

His oncologist offered him the opportunity to go to the mainland for an experimental procedure called immunotherapy.

The Jims made three trips to the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston for the treatment.

The doctor responded well enough to continue his final two sessions at Queens Medical Center in Honolulu in 1989. The hospital staff was specially trained to care for him because the treatment’s massive doses caused shock, high temperatures and convulsions.

“They really bent over backwards for me,” he said of the nursing staff.

The intense treatment shrank some of the lesions and caused others to disappear altogether. Surgery removed the remaining cancer and portions of his lungs.

Again he recovered and was doing “fairly well” until early in 1990, when walking around Kahala Mall, Mardie noticed her husband was “dragging his left leg.” A visit to the doctor suggested that he had had a stroke. They began rehabilitation.

But the “stroke” turned out to be another tumor.

The baptism

Ed was not a Catholic at this point, but Mardie was -- life-long and devoted. She had always made sure he received the blessings of a priest during previous hospitalizations. Now that he was in “in terrible shape” she suggested a step further.

“Wouldn’t you want to be baptized?” she asked him.

He asked her if that was what she wanted.

She told him that it was not a decision she could make for him, but said, “You have the sacrament of the sick all of the time and baptism is the sacrament of life.”

He replied, “Then I want to be baptized.”

On Feb. 3, 1990, the feast of St. Blaise, patron saint of throat disease, Marist Father Dennis Steik, then pastor of Star of the Sea Parish in Waialae-Kahala, went to the Jim’s house to baptize Ed.

“Father Dennis came in and Ed started to cry,” Mardie recalled. “He said to him, ‘Father I want to be healed.’”

Dr. Jim was baptized and also received the sacraments of First Eucharist and Anointing of the Sick.

The Jims then flew to the University of California at San Francisco where his surgeon removed a large tumor from the right side of his brain.

“Fortunately, they were able to get it all out,” he said.

“I didn’t need any x-ray treatment and I didn’t have any nerve deficiency afterward,” he said. “I could talk, I could move my hands and legs and I had no motor or sensory deficits or residual nerve problems.”

More challenges

During each of these tribulations, Dr. Jim said that he would go home, have a good cry and tell Mardie, “I am going to meet the challenge.”

He was inspired by a quote from Jim Valvano, the North Carolina State basketball coach who helped lead the team to a national championship.

“He died of cancer, but before he passed on he said, ‘Don’t give up – don’t ever give up,’” Dr. Jim said. “He was a Catholic, too. I had the greatest respect for him because he was very well liked and he was a fighter.”

But there would be many more fights and many more challenges to come.

In December 1991, a chest x-ray showed another lesion. It was removed by surgery and he recovered.

In 1993, an examination revealed cancer in his abdomen. Surgery took care of that too. Later that year, and also in 1994, doctors removed skin cancer from his arm and back.

In July 1994, more of his left lung had to be taken out.

The last major problem was in 1995, when Mardie noticed Ed was having problems signing his checks. Tests revealed a spot in the left side of his brain.

Dr. Warren Ishida, a former intern of Dr. Jim’s, was able to remove the growth completely and he regained the function of his right hand.

His last operation, the removal of a node from under his arm during outpatient surgery at Queen’s, was in January 1996.

Mardie’s battle, too

Mardie has been an essential part of Ed recovery. In countless ways, she has demonstrated her immeasurable love, faithfully charting his care and watching for signs of recurring illness.

“I have kept about five spiral books since everything has happened -- of every day, of every hospital, of everything that has happened,” she said.

But Mardie’s care included her steadfast and unwavering determination to bring God into the picture.

Jim grew up in a household that he said was Christian but not “religiously inclined.” Going to church was an annual affair -- on Christmas.

Before his illnesses, he was neutral about the power of prayer. Now, he says he’s learned that “medicine can only do so much and God does the rest, really.”

“Realizing I am still here, I always give thanks,” he said.

Mardie’s faith was strengthened through a 20-year devotion to St. Therese of Lisieux, also known as the “Little Flower.” Like many devotees of the saint, she would ask St. Theresa for her prayers and intercession followed by a sign, the appearance of a “shower of roses.”

The roses actually showed up during particularly trying moments and pulled her through.

Throughout the ordeals, Mardie also took Ed on pilgrimages to Lisieux, France, Saint Theresa’s birthplace; Medjugorje in Croatia, the site of alleged Marian apparitions; the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico; and Lourdes.

She requested prayers from others -- the Carmelite nuns at St. Stephen Diocesan Center and the charismatic prayer group at Holy Trinity Parish, Kuliouou.

And when Servite Father Peter Mary Rookey conducted healing services in Hawaii in 1996 and 2000, the Jims attended.

“It’s amazing to me that after the September 1996 healing service, Ed has had no more operations,” Mardie said.

Now retired, Dr. Jim keeps a busy schedule and still attends medical conferences. He is an emeritus clinical professor of surgery at the University of Hawaii Medical School. During his tenure, he trained more than 25 surgical residents, most of whom are practicing in Hawaii.

For enjoyment, he likes gardening, especially “taking care of Mardie’s rose garden,” which includes 19 rose bushes, each a different variety.

His annual check ups coincide with Marian feast days. His brain scan is scheduled for Sept. 8, the feast of the Birth of Mary, and his chest x-ray is Feb. 11, the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes.

The will to live

Much of Dr. Jim’s success comes from his own perseverance.

“I wanted to live,” he said. “I know several colleagues who got sick with cancer and took a defeatist attitude. My approach is that life is so important -- life is precious. I wanted to get well and I wanted to live and I think that attitude helped me a lot.”

“I am very grateful that I am still here,” he said. “Throughout my illness, it was my wife, Mardie, who took care of me. She gave me all of the support that I needed.”

Mardie, on her part, admits to moments of uncertainty.

“I have a lot of faith, but sometimes my trust goes out the window,” she said.

She once confided to a priest that when she prays “thy will be done” in the “Our Father,” she sometimes doesn’t mean it. The priest responded, “How do you know your will and his will aren’t the same?”

“I honestly don’t know,” Mardie said. “I certainly have gotten many signs along the way. I’d certainly rather be dead without Ed and God knows it.”

One thing Ed knows -- he’d certainly be dead if it were not for God, his excellent medical care … and Mardie.