Superman, Oprah, & God

SUMMARY:  Based entirely on true events, this remarkable story explores the intersection of medicine, faith, maternal instinct, and perseverance.  It asks a profound question: When science reaches its limits, what role do hope, prayer, and the courage to trust one's deepest convictions play in changing the course of a life?

When Bernard is diagnosed with aggressive multiple sclerosis, his future seems all but written: progressive disability, endless medications, and the looming threat of paralysis.  As specialists offer grim predictions and treatments that seem almost as devastating as the disease itself, his mother refuses to accept that fate.

Years earlier, two seemingly ordinary television moments—Oprah Winfrey urging viewers to trust their instincts and Christopher Reeve passionately advocating for stem cell research—lodged themselves in her memory for reasons she couldn't explain. Now, in the darkest season of her life, those forgotten messages resurface with startling clarity, convincing her that they were preparing her for this very battle.

***

“So, tell me why you think what happened with your son, Bernard, was divine intervention."

“Marc, that’s a long story.”

“Tell me, Marina.  I'm more interested in the medical part of your story.   I hope to get it published in a medical journal and then parlay that into getting a Congressional hearing on the subject.  But, the miracle point of view is far more fascinating from a human-interest standpoint, and I'm always up for a good story.”

“Ok, but many have tried with Congress, and many have failed.  I love you for not giving up, though.  But, Marc, I don't think of what happened as a miracle.  It was definitely miraculous, but I don't think it was a miracle per se.  I think it was kismet.  And prayer.  However, I think that you, being a man of science, will dismiss that."

“That’s where you’re wrong.  Medical science has long recognized that prayer works.  They don’t understand how it works because they can't see it under their microscopes.  However, they are certain that patients who receive prayers experience significantly better recoveries than those who do not."

“Well, ok, it was in 1999, and I was only half watching the Oprah Winfrey show.  The show must have been about following our instincts, because I heard Oprah say, “I believe our instincts are how God speaks to us.”  That caught my attention.  I always knew that when I ignored my first instinct, I ended up in a bad place in my life.  So, I figured Oprah knew what she was talking about.  That particular show stayed with me, and Marc, there was a reason for that."  

“Next, fast forward to 2000.  And here again, television is involved.   Because on the news, I see Superman in a wheelchair speaking to Congress about stem cells.   Well, of course, it wasn't Superman, but Christopher Reeve who starred as the superhero in the Superman franchise.  Stem cells, he said, held the answer to many of our diseases, and they could reverse paralysis."  

"Now, the strange thing about all this is that I never really cared for Christopher Reeve.  I thought he was handsome, but he was too white-bread for me.  But I was sorry that he’d been thrown from his horse and left paralyzed.  Even so, I wasn’t really interested in seeing him or listening to what he was saying, so I started to change the channel.”

“But, Marc, my instincts stopped me cold, and I did not change that channel.  And as clear as day, I heard Oprah saying again, “Our instincts are how God speaks to us.”  Was God speaking to me?   If so, why?   And I remember thinking, Better to err on the side of caution.  Remember, I told you that when I ignored my first instincts, I always ended up in a bad place.  So I sat and listened.  What Superman said moved me.  Indeed, just as with Oprah's show, Reeve's Congressional testimony refused to leave me.  But it would take another eight years for me to understand why.”

“You remember that Clarence, my ex, is a nurse, right?”

“Right, I remember.”

“Well, I asked him what he thought of Christopher Reeve's views on stem cells, but, as usual, all he did was shrug.  Now you know why we’re divorced.  I wanted to pop him one.  He always gave the impression that he didn't care about anything that was important to me.  Did he care?  I've no idea, but I do know he wanted me to think he didn't care.  And he succeeded."

“Now jump ahead to 2008.  By now, Bernard’s twenty-one and away at college.  Obama was running for president and was going to hold a rally on the campus of Bernard's college.  So, I called him to make sure he went to see Barack Obama.  I called him around noon, and he was napping.  Marc, this is a kid who hasn't taken a nap since preschool.  Right away, I knew something was wrong.  He said he had some vision problems, but the campus doctor said it was nothing much, just eye strain from too much screen time.  But other than that, Bernard said he was fine.”

“Well, of course, he wasn’t fine, because less than a month later, MS knocked on the door, and when Bernard answered,  it threw a grenade into his life and into mine as well."  

"I’d heard of multiple sclerosis, but I didn’t really know what it was all about.  That changed in a hurry.  Do you know that there are people with MS whose symptoms are so mild that the disease never interferes with their quality of life?   Then, there are others whose lives are destroyed by it.  It can affect everything from your ability to walk and talk to your ability to see and swallow.  Remember Richard Pryor?  He was on the destructive end of that spectrum.  MS  robbed him of his ability to walk, talk, and swallow.  It's a hideous disease."

"Aside from neurologists, I know more about MS than most other doctors.  One doctor told me that pain is not a symptom associated with MS.  Wrong.  From my research, I discovered that most MS patients report pain in their knees, in their feet, and in their legs.  The actor Montel Williams, who has MS, reported that he had such severe foot pain that he once fell through a glass coffee table.  And looking back, I remember Bernard complaining of knee pain from around age eleven.  I took him to an orthopedic surgeon, but the surgeon found nothing wrong.  I know now that it was an early symptom of MS."

"Bernard's neurologist said that MS was basically a disease that affected people in cold climates and that mostly white women got it.  It was rare among African Americans.  Of all the people who got the disease, African Americans got it the least, he said.  But.  And this was a big but, when they did get it, the disease affected them more severely than it did others.  Well, now, wasn't that just damn peachy keen!  I was so angry, I wanted to bite a bullet."

"Bernard had the relapsing-remitting type of multiple sclerosis.  To him and to me, the most frightening thing about MS was the prospect of paralysis.  It was like a hurricane tearing through his body and through his life.  The symptoms were severe and devastating.  One day, he fell and couldn't get up.  I screamed out loud.  He’d lose his sight and regain it.  He’d lose his ability to walk and regain it.  Relasping and remitting, relasping and remitting.  And, he was dizzy often enough that he could no longer play any sports, which was a major part of  his life back then.”

"And the fatigue.  It was overwhelming and kept him bedridden half the day, almost every day.  He'd urinate up to thirty times a day.   Every day.  He'd experience brain fog that affected his ability to focus, process information, or remember things.  But thankfully, that would remit too.  Then, in addition to all that, he was so depressed that it frightened the daylights out of me.  But who the hell wouldn't be depressed?”

"Now here comes the medications.  Dear God in heaven, don’t get me started on that.  There was one medication that cost $2487.50.  Each month.  And before you ask, no.   No, insurance did not cover it.  And Bernard was covered under two insurances, mine and Clarence's.  There oughta be a law."  

"But whatever else Clarence was, and he was a lot of things, he always came through on money matters.  Because of him, I was able to purchase that medication for Bernard every month.  There was never a question of   'Where's the money gonna come from?'   Because Clarence took care of it, just as he always had with anything involving money.   That whole family is good with finances.  Every single one of them.  Bernard too.  I always wondered how that happens.  But I digress."

"Next.  The side effects of the meds.  They were nearly as harmful as the condition itself.  Bernard had to inject himself with that stuff every day.  He experienced flu-like symptoms that kept him in bed four out of every seven days, and he shivered and shook from the cold.   And he really wasn't getting any better."  

"Then, along comes a new drug that was injected once a month.  The doctors claimed it was so effective that it was almost a cure.  Great news, right?  Ah, but they failed to tell me about the side effects.  Again, my instincts told me to look deeper.  So, I researched the drug and found out that it was indeed highly effective, but the side effects could cause a fatal brain infection.   So, the doctors were right.  It was highly effective if it didn't kill you."  

"I refused to allow Bernard to take the medication because it was killing one in every one thousand patients.  One of the doctors was upset with me.  They don't like it when you refuse to follow their advice.  But I heeded my instincts.  And thank God I did.  The side effects of that particular medication were so dangerous that the manufacturer later developed a blood test to see whether or not a patient would develop the brain infection.  And guess what?"

"Bernard would have been affected?"

"Bingo!  So, were my instincts the voice of God?   I say yes.  Because of all the medications Bernard was taking at that time, and there were many, this was the only one that my instincts warned me about."

"All of this affected Bernard's life in unimaginable ways.  Dating?  Forget about it.  Playing sports?  Forget about it.  College life?  Forget about it.  But he clung to his life at school because it was his identity at the time.  The only thing he did at school now was attend classes, and barely that.  But no study groups.  No sporting events.  No pickup b-ball games.  No hanging out with friends.  No pub crawls.  No parties.  In other words, no life.”

“I wanted him home where I could look after him, but he steadfastly refused to leave school, and his doctors agreed with him.  ‘Let him lead as normal a life as he can now, because in ten years, he'll be in a wheelchair,’ they said.  I wanted to tear my hair out and run screaming.”

“And through all this, Clarence was emotionally absent.  He told Bernard to deal with the diagnosis with drugs and alcohol.  And when I called him on it, he denied having said it.  After that, he was in denial about what was going on and about his response to it.  He wouldn’t discuss stem cells with me.  He wouldn’t discuss the diagnosis with me.  Emotionally, he just disappeared.”

“When the doctor spoke to Bernard, Clarence, and me about the diagnosis, he told us that the disease usually runs in families.  Was it in either of our families?  I told him that my parents had twelve children, and all of those children had children.  I said I have one sister who has seventeen children, and some of those seventeen have children, and with all those children in our family, we’d never seen MS.”

"Clarence lied.  He sat there and told that doctor a bald-faced lie.  ‘No, we’ve never seen it in my family either,’ he said.  A week later, I learned from his mother that it had been in their family for as long as she could remember.  And she said Clarence knew it.”

“I knew then that I was in this thing alone.  Then one morning, realization dawned.  It woke me from a sound sleep, and I sat straight up in bed.  Suddenly, I knew that the answer lay in what Oprah and Christopher Reeve had said all those years ago—heeding one's instincts and the power of stem cells to cure diseases."

"Marc, that realization came from God.  And it was God who made me stop and listen to both Oprah and Christoper Reeve on television back in '99 and 2000.  I believe that, and I’ll believe it until the day I die.  But if I thought it was going to be easy—well, it wasn't.  Remember, this was 2008.  Only a handful of doctors worldwide were performing stem cell transplants.  They were not standard medical care at that time, and they still aren't."

“So began months of frustrating research into how to get a stem cell transplant that led nowhere.  Basically, because Congress would not approve funding for it here in this country.  I contacted doctors in Europe who had funding to perform stem cell transplants, but to no avail.  People all over the world were trying to get appointments with those doctors.  And preference was given to citizens of their own countries.  But all my instincts told me that stem cells were the answer, and that I shouldn't give up." 

 "Then a co-worker told me that the Cleveland Clinic was conducting a clinical trial for stem cell replacement therapy for MS patients.  I called for an appointment, and Bernard and I flew to Cleveland.  They were very nice, but they were not able to admit Bernard into their study.  They offered more medication.  I felt like I'd been rolled over by a steamroller.  But still, something kept telling me that stem cells were the answer."

"But how could that be when, despite Christopher Reeve’s appeal, Congress still refused to fund the research?  But in the back of my mind, I kept hearing Oprah saying, ‘Our instincts are how God speaks to us.’  So, I kept on with my own research."

"But I was exhausted.  Between tears, fears, anger, and trying to keep up a strong facade for Bernard, I was overwhelmed and scared to death.  And remember, I was trying to do all this on my own because, as I said, Clarence was MIA, and Bernard was not only sick but also in shock.  But if I was frightened and felt all alone, what on earth was Bernard feeling?"  

"Something had to give, so I did what people have done since time immemorial when faced with a tragedy.  I turned to God.  Now, you, being a man of science, might doubt the existence of God.  But what I know for sure is that there is something out there.  

"Whether it's the God I learned about as a kid, the Universe, or Fate, I don't know.   Personally, I don't think it matters what we call it, but I do think it's important that we believe it.  So, yes, I think there is something out there, some kind of benevolent force, if you will.  And I clung to that.  I still cling to that, Marc."

"Marina, I wish I had your faith.  But you're right, I have doubts, but that doesn't mean that God doesn't exist.  I don't have all the answers.   I'm trying to navigate life's landscape, just like anyone else.  So, don't worry about what I think.  It's what you think that matters here."

"Well, my mother taught me that when life kicks you hard, you’d better kick back.  And she said you kick back with prayer.  Serious prayer.   And serious prayer, she said, must be conducted on your knees in a quiet, dark place.  Old-fashioned, right?  Well, let me tell you, I didn't give a rat's ass that it was old-fashioned.  I did it."

"I can hear her now, ‘Close your eyes.  Get still.  Focus on receiving what you’re praying for, and always, always, begin with thanks.’  So, that’s what I did." 

“I grabbed a big, thick pillow, went into my walk-in closet, closed the door, turned off the light,  threw that pillow on the floor, knelt on it, and I had church in that closet.  Talk about 'peace be still!'  I gave that storm and all that chaos over to God.  And He delivered my son, Marc.  He delivered my son.  And in the process, He delivered me as well."  

"I was now led to a doctor performing stem cell transplants right here in San Diego, funded by the State instead of the federal government.  And once again, television was involved.  Soon after my prayer session in the closet, I turned on the news and saw a doctor with his patient, a kid about eighteen who had MS, and his mother being interviewed about how successful the stem cell transplant had been.  The kid even looked like Bernard.  They'd traveled from St. Louis to San Diego.  To this day, I still remember their names." 

"Of course, I called that doctor right away.  But, just like with those doctors in Europe, it was impossible to get an appointment with him.  I’d call his office every day, but the number was busy all day.  I’d call as soon as the office opened, but that number was never not busy.  And just as with those European doctors, people were calling this doctor from all over the world as well.  And from every state in the United States. 

  

"Something told me to ask another doctor to contact this stem cell doctor on Bernard's behalf.  Because it's not what you know, but who you know, right?  But in my entire life, asking others for help has never worked for me.  Especially when it's something I desperately need or want.  Don't ask me why that is.  I've no idea.  I just know that's how it's always been for me.  So, I persevered with what I was already doing—research and trying to contact this doctor."

"Next, I sent the doctor emails.  That got me nowhere fast.  I even resorted to sending snail mail.  Of course, that was fruitless too.  I then tried to find contact information for the kid and his mother, who'd been showcased in that news story.  I'm really good at research, but try as I might, I couldn't find any information on these people.  So, I took a leave of absence from my job and went down to the doctor's office day in and day out, sitting there all day trying to get an appointment.  Marc, there were countless people there doing the same thing.”

“Then, after about six weeks, I finally followed my first instinct, which was to have other doctors contact this doctor on Bernard’s behalf.  I can't tell you how much I dreaded doing it.  But I heard Oprah’s voice again—‘Our instincts are how God speaks to us.’” 

"Who did I know who knew doctors?  Clarence, of course.  But I didn't ask him to contact any of the doctors he knew.  Because if he'd given me one of his stupid ass shrugs, I would have killed him then and there with my bare hands.  Over the years, I'd met many of the doctors Clarence worked with at dinners, at parties, or medical conferences, so I contacted two of them myself.  Both immediately said they'd be happy to help.  Now, if that wasn't divine intervention, then I don't know what is.  Because asking others for help had never, ever worked out for me before, but this time it did." 

"When Clarence found out what I'd done, he said, 'Rina, why didn't you ask me?  I would have spoken to those guys because Bernard's my son too.'  I wanted to say, then why on earth didn't you do it?  But I just left that alone, because I had bigger fish to fry."

"I got a call from the doctor's office within a week, asking us to come in for an appointment.  At the appointment, the procedure was explained to us.  But the incredible thing to me was that the next day, the doctor called me and said that Bernard and I reminded him of his patient he'd done the TV news interview with, and he wanted me to talk to the kid's mother, so he gave me her number.  After trying everything to find this woman's contact info, here it was being given to me.  This woman answered every question I had.  She was very kind, very forthcoming, and she put all my worries to rest." 

“For the first time in months, I was able to breathe easily.  But wouldn’t you know it, life threw another curveball.  This time, it came from a totally unexpected source—Bernard, himself.  When he learned that he’d have to be in the hospital for six weeks, he wouldn’t do it.  And he kept refusing until after he graduated from college, which was another two years.  And no matter what I said, he wouldn’t go into the hospital for the transplant.”

"The minute he came home from school after graduation, I put my foot down.  In the intervening two years,  the hospital stay for the stem cell transplant had been reduced from six weeks to three weeks.  I said, 'Bernard, you can either go into the hospital for three weeks now, or you can refuse to go and in ten years, be in a wheelchair for the rest of your life.  Your choice.'  He relented."

“That was sixteen years ago.  And in all those years since the transplant, Bernard has not taken any MS meds.   He now works out relentlessly and has a YouTube channel to showcase his workouts. But more importantly, he’s back to the person he was before MS entered our lives."  

"So, was it divine intervention, Marc?  You tell me.  But I say it was.  Because there is no way in this world I could have made this happen on my own, and nothing, nothing will ever convince me otherwise.  I mean, with all the star power of Hollywood behind him, even Superman couldn't make it happen.  But God did."

The End

2026 Update:

Stem cell transplants for MS are still not approved by the FDA in the US.  However, five specialized medical centers offer the procedure as an off-label treatment option for MS patients.  The medical centers are:

**Mayo Clinic (Rochester, MN)   Ranked  #1 Hospital in the World

**Cleveland Clinic (Cleveland, OH)  Ranked  #2  Hospital in the World
**Northwestern Memorial Hospital (Chicago, IL)  Ranked  #13 Hospital in the World
UCI Health (Irvine, CA)
Georgetown University Hospital (Washington, D.C.)
The procedure has a price tag of around $150,000.  Insurance rarely covers it, so patients must pay out of pocket or participate in clinical trials.

*  Bernard participated in a clinical trial, so the cost to his family was zero.

** Rankings provided by Newsweek

© 2012 Jade Love