Doctor says she’s overcome cancer through faith

By Josh Eiserike

Published: May 1, 2008

WOODBRIDGE — Claudia Thomas has fought for civil rights — and her own life. Thomas, 58, is an orthopedic sur-geon living in Lady Lake, Fla., who said she was the first black woman in the field.

She recently read her struggles, personal and professional, from her book “God Spare Life: An Autobiography” in Occoquan. The book, which chronicles her faith and suc-cessful battle with cancer, was published last July from WME Books.

The book’s title refers to an expression in St. Thomas, along the lines of “we’ll see you next week if God spares your life.”

“In my case he certainly did,” Thomas said. “The focus of the book is heal-ing.”

It details spirituality and medicine, as well as racism and sexism in a male-dominated field.

“I met my biggest challenge when I was diagnosed with kidney failure,” Thomas said. “This was survival. This challenged my physical survival.”

Hurricane Aftermath

Thomas was living in St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands when Hurricane Hugo hit. No one died from the storm, but it was devastating—and caused Thomas quite a bit of stress. Six months after the storm hit, the stress from pushed her to kidney failure. Doctors told her she needed a kidney transplant, and her sister Catherine Thomas, a 59-year-old realtor living in Fort Washington, Md., volunteered one of hers.

The night before the transplant at Washington Hospital Center Thomas’ surgeon expressed discomfort at an abnormal kidney scan that showed a cyst on her kidney.

There was less than one percent chance of something going wrong, the surgeon said, but was unwilling to take the chance. The surgeon wanted to do a biopsy before taking the sister’s kidney.

“I woke up from surgery with my surgeon telling me I had cancer in both my kidneys, both needed to be removed,” Thomas said. “I was able to respond, still in the recovery room, still groggy from the anesthesia, I responded, ‘Praise God’.”

She said she responded that way because the doctor found the cancer and removed it.
She knew she was cured, even if the doctor’s didn’t.

The transplant was postponed because doctors didn’t know how far the cancer had spread. Instead, Thomas started dialysis.

Coming Up

Thomas grew up in a “spiritual” household in Jamaica, Queens. She’d go to church every Sunday. Her father was a deacon, her mother in the choir. She didn’t affiliate with a church when she left for college, but said the lessons of faith and healing stayed with her.

She studied math at Vassar College, but grew bored with it by her junior year.
Medicine was a natural fit, combining many of her skills—manual dexterity, carpentry, art and, of course, sewing. However, discrimination was “all over the place.”

The young woman, who would later be recognized by the American Academy of Orthopedic Sur-geons for her achievement in the area of diversity, took a stand with 34 others by occupying a Vassar building in protest. “The administration didn’t take us seriously,” Tho-mas said. The Vassar administration did not adequately address issues that concerned the black students.

The protesting students wanted an accredited black studies program, more black faculty, more black students and a black counselor.

“We had nine issues, nine demands,” Thomas said. “At the end of those four days, all of our demands were met and we were given amnesty.”
She said there wasn’t racial discrimination in medical school, but she remained apprehen-sive about entering a specialty with few women. She approached the chief resident with this concern.

“His response was, ‘There’s no reason you can’t do this’,” Thomas said. “That was all the encouragement I needed.”

Thomas became the first black woman to become an orthopedic surgeon, probably in the entire world.

“Certainly the first that was board certified,” Thomas said.

Transplant Time

It would be 15 months before Thomas could get her kidney transplant. She moved in with her sister in Fort Washington.
“Of course it was just a shocking and numbing experience,” Catherine Thomas said. “The entire course of her illness was so devastating. It was almost surreal. It was such a horrible time in all of our lives.”
Catherine Thomas was a newlywed and had just bought a house with her husband. Luckily, it was big enough to accommodate her sister, mother and husband’s two children, who visited often.
Thomas returned to church, joining Union Temple Baptist in Anacostia.
“Having the cancer removed was just the beginning of the hell I went through,” Tho-mas said. “I suffered every complication that you could while I was on dialysis.”
She had fluid overload, her potassium level shot up to twice the normal amount that caused heart blockage. This should have been fatal.
“I was sitting there talking to the doctors and nurses and I had no heart rhythm,” Thomas said.
She had a grand mal seizure and was comatose for four days.
“It was the prayers of my mother and others that allowed me to survive when I could not pray for myself,” Thomas said.
After a year Thomas returned to the hospital to receive a transplant of antibodies for her blood. The doctors told her the antibodies would reject the new kidney.
“At that time I was 98 pounds and I was literally dying,” Thomas said.
She became distraught, lost her faith and fell into depression. Still, she said it was the prayer and resilience of those around her that saved her life.
Three months later she got a call from the surgeon. They had identified the problem. She received her new kidney on Sept. 30, 1991, 15 months after they found the cancer. Six months later she was back to work.
That was 17 years ago and she’s been living healthy and cancer free ever since.
Thomas received the Spirituality and Medicine Award April 18 from Howard University.
“I hope people realize that no matter what they’re going through they can get through with faith and prayer,” Thomas said.
Josh Eiserike is a staff writer at the Potomac News in Woodbridge.