"Something worked very well," said Dr. Larry Fitzpatrick, chief of surgery at Mercy Medical Center, who will serve as medical expert on the archiocesan committee.
Preparing for his committee role, Fitzpatrick spoke to specialists at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York and M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.
"They've all got a few stories like this," he said. "Is this woman really any different from these, what I would call 'statistically improbable' cases? The outcome is very unusual, but it's not the only one."
Fitzpatrick said his role on the panel is to be the scientist, to "be the Doubting Thomas," but as a Catholic, he says, he must entertain the possibility of a supernatural cause.
Gibson, a Presbyterian, is not discounting the idea of divine intervention in Heibel's case.
"The easy answer is, 'I'll take any help I can get,' " he said. "It was probably a combination of the chemotherapy and good fortune."
Heibel is not sure how to explain it.
"The only thing we're not supposed to call it is a miracle," she said.
Well, perhaps not yet.
Francis Xavier Seelos
* Jan. 11, 1819: Born in F?ssen, Germany
* May 16, 1843: Begins novitiate at St. James, Baltimore
* Dec. 22, 1843: Ordination to the priesthood
* 1845-1854: Serves as assistant priest at St. Philomena, Pittsburgh
* 1854-1857: Serves as pastor and religious superior, St. Alphonsus, Baltimore
* Spring 1857: Serves briefly at St. Mary's, Annapolis
* 1857-1862: Serves at Sts. Peter and Paul, Cumberland
* 1862-1863: Serves at St. Mary's, Annapolis
* 1863-1866: Serves as itinerant preacher
* 1866-1867: Serves at St. Mary's Assumption in New Orleans
* Oct.4, 1867: Dies in New Orleans of yellow fever
* April 9, 2000: Beatified by Pope John Paul II
