Michael David Pfaff was a 23-year-old medical student working towards completing his medical internship at Addington Hospital in Durban, South Africa. In 1948, Pfaff was diagnosed with chronic leukemia. Terminally ill, Pfaff entered healing revivals conducted by William Branham and F. F. Bosworth. During the prayer line in the revival, Branham singled Pfaff out among the audience and exclaimed, "Cancer of the blood! You are cured!"
Waymon Doyne Miller, who collaborated with other ministers in Branham's meetings, personally witnessed Branham pronounce "healing" on people he knew and realized that Branham's claims were fraudulent. Upon investigating a list of people that he knew personally or those he was able to contact after Branham's revival, Miller confirmed several false claims made by William Branham and the Branham Campaigns. Michael Pfaff was one of the worst fraudulent claims by Branham and his campaign team; Pfaff died from his terminal illness before his "healing" could even be printed in Branham's advertising literature — and yet Branham's team still published it.
In his book, Modern Divine Healing, Miller wrote:
Dr. M. P., twenty-three years old, was a houseman at Addington Hospital. As a medical student he had leukemia, but bravely carried on his studies. He knew he was doomed, in the human sense, but showed amazing pluck. I was there when Branham dramatically singled him out and said, 'Cancer of the blood! You are cured! It was dramatic in a big way. But I suspected that Branham knew all along that he was in the audience near the front, for he was a hospital case, and a doctor besides, and many others knew of his presence. Well, Dr. P. went back to the hospital, discharged himself the next morning, strongly against the advice of the Medical Superintendent, went to his home at Shepstone, seemed well for twelve hours, got sick again, and was dead in less than a month. But this is not the worst. An American paper contained an article by Bosworth on the Durban campaign. In it Bosworth cites this wonderful cure, adding that the hospital staff examined him the next day and found his blood entirely free from cancer, whereas exactly the opposite was the case! The medical staff thought him foolish to leave, said there was no change in his blood condition, and they were proved right. The same Bosworth article mentioned crowds of 80,000 to 100,000 at Greyville race-course, whereas its utmost capacity is just over twenty thousand. Of course, his friends in the States would not know any better on this point, and they would swallow it as it stands.
- Waymon Doyle Miller, Modern Divine Healing
When Branham returned to the United States, and with the help of F. F. Bosworth, news of his alleged healing power quickly spread through the Latter Rain revivals. Bosworth sent letters to Pentecostal magazines proclaiming the many faith cures, and Michael Pfaff's "healing" was no exception.
In Volume 11 Number 2 of The Herald of His
