Renowned psychiatrist, Dr. Lukoye Atwoli, has shared a sobering account of a breast cancer patient who abandoned treatment after attending a crusade by Prophet David Owuor, where she believed she had been healed.
Tragically, the woman died soon after.
Dr. Atwoli recalled that during her funeral, mourners praised the prophet for “curing” her cancer and blamed the devil for afflicting her with a new illness that led to her death.
His revelation comes in the wake of Owuor’s recent Nakuru crusade, where several attendees claimed miraculous healing from life‑threatening conditions, including HIV/AIDS, sparking fresh debate on faith and medicine.
Read his post below.
Of prophets and complications
When I was a relatively new specialist in Eldoret sometime almost twenty years ago, I was once asked by a physician colleague to review a patient with newly diagnosed breast cancer, who was undergoing evaluation for treatment planning.
When I saw her, she was of course anxious about the diagnosis, but she was willing to go through with the planning and initiate care. We managed the anxiety and treatment started.
We followed her up for a couple of months, until our last outpatient appointment in November when we noted that she was doing quite well.
The next I heard about her was that she was admitted in hospital early the next year, and I was asked to review her again.
She looked haggard, and it was clear she had stopped her treatment over the holidays. I asked her what had happened. She smiled at me and told me that she had attended “the prophet’s” crusade at Eldoret Sports Club and that she had been healed of her cancer.
We had a long discussion about what that meant, and what was likely happening in her body, but she remained adamant that she had been healed and did not need any more treatment.
Eventually she signed her discharge against medical advice, and went home.
I next saw her six months later, with an open wound on her chest where the cancer had spread, delirious due to its effects on her brain, and with significant body weakness due to the systemic effects of the disease. She couldn’t remember me.
She died a few days later.
At her funeral, everyone praised the prophet for curing her cancer, and cursed the devil for giving her a new affliction with wounds on her chest that caused her death.
During those days we would see, towards December, mass clinic defaults and ward discharges of patients with severe chronic diseases, followed by severe complications and relapses three to six months later. Invariably, “healing at the prophet’s crusade” and stoppage of treatment were the key culprits. Many died as a result. Some survived with avoidable complications.
When the end-year crusades moved to Nakuru at some point, we had a little bit of a respite in Eldoret. Less relapses. Less complications. Less deaths. But then these just spread out to the rest of the country.
While I am not responsible for what you do with your own health, it is my responsibility to equip you with as much information as you need to make an informed choice. Especially if I have a role in public health or in your personal care.
Happy new year!
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