Edeltraud Fulda: Addison's Disease Cured at Lourdes

Edeltraud Fulda (later Haidinger after her 1968 marriage) was 34 years old on August 12, 1950, when she bathed at Lourdes during a pilgrimage. She had been diagnosed with Addison's disease — chronic failure of the adrenal cortex to produce essential hormones — a condition that in 1950 was essentially incurable and progressive.

After her Lourdes visit she recovered fully and durably. Her case was submitted to the Lourdes Medical Bureau, reviewed by CMIL, and found medically inexplicable. Cardinal Theodor Innitzer, Archbishop of Vienna, proclaimed it miraculous on May 18, 1955.

Addison's disease occupies a distinct position in this list because, unlike tuberculosis or Hodgkin's lymphoma, it has no documented spontaneous remission rate. The adrenal cortex does not regenerate once chronically damaged. The legitimate uncertainty is diagnostic: 1950 criteria for Addison's relied on clinical presentation and urinary steroid measurement, which was less definitive than the ACTH stimulation test developed later. Misdiagnosis — functional adrenal insufficiency from another cause that resolved — is possible.

If the 1950 diagnosis was accurate, this case lacks a credible natural mechanism. The diagnostic uncertainty is real but limited; multiple physicians confirmed the clinical picture over time.