Korean War vet wins battle with cancer

Do you believe in miracles? Dr. L.J. Mayeux and the staff of All Saints Hospice certainly do.

They point to Clyde Livaudais, an 89-year-old Korean War veteran living at OakMont Estates as evidence that God still works miracles in this world.

Mayeux and All Saints Hospice began care for Livaudais a year ago, after he decided not to take chemotherapy to fight pancreatic cancer.

Soon there was a battalion of “prayer warriors” praying for Livaudais.

Fellow OakMont residents prayed for him at morning and evening rosaries, at Monday Masses and at the Men’s Marian Rosary group meetings on Wednesdays and Fridays.

The Bible’s James 5:16 says the “effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” (KJV)

When the usual path of pancreatic cancer did not occur -- expected symptoms did not materialize and existing symptoms seemed to disappear -- Mayeux suspected those 2,000-year-old words may have come true in this case.

Mayeux ordered tests to obtain a status report on his patient’s condition. He and Livaudais’ other physicians collaborated on reviewing those results.

Radiologists who reviewed all of the scans, surgical notes, pathology reports and test results came to one conclusion: “We’re witnessing a miracle.”

There was no sign of cancer in any of the diagnostic scans and lab tests.

“It is not often in a medical practice that a doctor is able to give his patient good news about a terminal illness,” Mayeux said.

“I was glad to be able to tell Clyde and Irma this good news,” Mayeux continued. “They are a lovely couple, so appreciative and kind. I have developed a close relationship with them.”

Mayeux, who is also Avoyelles’ coroner and medical director for All Saints Hospice, said he has never seen anything like this in his many years as a physician.

“The only way to explain it is that it is a miracle,” Mayeux said. “All of those prayers and rosaries and love for this man had an effect.”

Livaudais had beaten the enemy after having resigned himself to a certain fate, choosing not to take a treatment that would have made his last months filled with pain and side effects in a losing battle. It wasn’t the first time he had survived an enemy who thought they had beaten him.

A CAVE IN KOREA

In May 1951, Livaudais’ Army unit was overrun and captured by the Chinese, who had entered the war to aid North Korea.

“They marched us for many miles and at night they put us in a cave,” Livaudais said. “There was very little air. Some of the guys who smoked tried to light a match and they would just fizzle. There wasn’t enough oxygen to light them.”

Livaudais said he recalls slumping to the ground, barely able to breathe and almost certain he could not survive the night.

“Someone, I never knew who, put their hand on my shoulder and said, ‘We will make it through this,’” he recalled.

Those words of encouragement lifted his spirits and he swore to himself that he would make it through the night and through his captivity.

And he did.

He was a prisoner of war for 27 months.

“God healed me in that dark cave during the war and again today,” Livaudais told OakMont Director Melissa Loughman. “I’m beginning to be a regular for Him,” he joked.

Livaudais will disagree with you if you tell him “You beat cancer.”

“I didn’t do anything,” he said. “It was someone else’s doing entirely.”

ANOTHER 2ND CHANCE

This is also not his first second chance for happiness after enduring a life-threatening event.

Out of the horrors of the POW camp came something good.

Livaudais, who is from the New Orleans area, met a fellow POW from Cottonport in the camp. He kept in touch over the years.

The Livaudaises would dine with the Avoyelles couple at POW organization conventions.

His friend died and Livaudais’ wife died a year later.

At a POW conference he saw his friend’s widow, Irma, and asked her to dinner.

“I tell people we started talking that night and haven’t stopped since,” he said with a laugh.

That was in October 2010. They married in February 2011.

Irma is from Dupont.

Livaudais said it was easier for him to move to Avoyelles Parish than for her to uproot and move to South Louisiana.

He has lived at OakMont for about 18 months.

He and his wife have shed many tears of joy recently to make up for the many tears of fear they wept during his battle with cancer.

They want all who will listen to know that God is still in the miracle business.

{Chad Steward, All Saints Hospice administrator, contributed to this article}