Member News
NLMSF meets the Code 3 for a Cure crew in Montgomery, Alabama.
July 3, 2008
July 3, 2008
John, Peggy, Doug, Jane and Lorenzo
Not by Fire: Code 3 for a Cure is honoring firefighters who died of Cancer
Journal Photo by Lauren Carroll
Jennifer Stanley (left) is hugged by Peggy Abundiz who is part of the crew with her husband, Lorenzo (far right), and John McKnight.
By Elizabeth DeOrnellas
JOURNAL REPORTER
Published: July 1, 2008
Two-year-old Beau Stanley of Greenville always wanted to be a firefighter.
When Beau contracted cancer of the adrenal glands, the Greenville firefighters rallied around his family, bringing food to the hospital and parking their truck outside so Beau could see the ladder raised to his window.
After Beau died, four firemen served as his pallbearers. A firetruck led the funeral procession. On the back of the truck hung a canvas mural showing Beau in his very own fire hat, waving.
Beau's mother, Jennifer Stanley, and a 4-year-old cousin did their part to return the favor, traveling to Winston-Salem yesterday to greet the "Code 3 for a Cure" crew, a group of firefighters who came to town as part of their cross-country tour to honor firefighters who have died of cancer.
The crew is trying to raise awareness of cancers linked to firefighting and to spur donations to nonprofit groups battling cancer. The firefighters started in Los Angeles on June 13 and traveled to New York, stopping along the way to collect the names of active and retired firefighters who died of cancer.
On June 23, the crew read the nearly 400 names during a ceremony at Valentino Pier, which is named after a firefighter who died on the job.
The crew, which stayed in Winston-Salem for a night, will return to California by July 13. Winston-Salem is the 43rd stop out of 60 total on their cross-country loop.
"It's been, in my experience, an eye-opener for all of us," crew leader Lorenzo Abundiz said. "Just the openness and camaraderie involved in the station, and embracing us as brothers and sisters, it's just incredible."
Abundiz, who retired from the Santa Ana Fire Department after 27 years, has battled two types of cancer in the past 10 years. After successfully fighting off a high-grade leiomyosarcoma, he was found to have bladder cancer that has been linked to his on-the-job exposure to tar.
"They do the best they can to protect themselves, but unfortunately you do have a higher risk of cancer," he said, adding that it's important to recognize those who have already suffered the consequences of those on-the-job hazards.
"We also want to honor and remember those firefighters who lost their lives because they're the ones who paved the way for better equipment, better procedures for firefighters of today, like my son who's a fireman-medic," he said.
Abundiz's son, Jeremy, traveled with the crew to New York before being called back to California to help provide medical support to those fighting the raging wildfires.
Abundiz's wife, Peggy, is also part of the crew, acting as a spokeswoman and helping to manage the large e-mail response to the crew's work.
"Sometimes I, I just sit there and cry," she said. "That's all I can do, really."
"Code 3 for a Cure" will expand its mission next year. The crew plans to follow two new routes, designed to cover as much of the United States as possible. It will also make stops in Canada.
By Elizabeth DeOrnellas
JOURNAL REPORTER
Published: July 1, 2008
Two-year-old Beau Stanley of Greenville always wanted to be a firefighter.
When Beau contracted cancer of the adrenal glands, the Greenville firefighters rallied around his family, bringing food to the hospital and parking their truck outside so Beau could see the ladder raised to his window.
After Beau died, four firemen served as his pallbearers. A firetruck led the funeral procession. On the back of the truck hung a canvas mural showing Beau in his very own fire hat, waving.
Beau's mother, Jennifer Stanley, and a 4-year-old cousin did their part to return the favor, traveling to Winston-Salem yesterday to greet the "Code 3 for a Cure" crew, a group of firefighters who came to town as part of their cross-country tour to honor firefighters who have died of cancer.
The crew is trying to raise awareness of cancers linked to firefighting and to spur donations to nonprofit groups battling cancer. The firefighters started in Los Angeles on June 13 and traveled to New York, stopping along the way to collect the names of active and retired firefighters who died of cancer.
On June 23, the crew read the nearly 400 names during a ceremony at Valentino Pier, which is named after a firefighter who died on the job.
The crew, which stayed in Winston-Salem for a night, will return to California by July 13. Winston-Salem is the 43rd stop out of 60 total on their cross-country loop.
"It's been, in my experience, an eye-opener for all of us," crew leader Lorenzo Abundiz said. "Just the openness and camaraderie involved in the station, and embracing us as brothers and sisters, it's just incredible."
Abundiz, who retired from the Santa Ana Fire Department after 27 years, has battled two types of cancer in the past 10 years. After successfully fighting off a high-grade leiomyosarcoma, he was found to have bladder cancer that has been linked to his on-the-job exposure to tar.
"They do the best they can to protect themselves, but unfortunately you do have a higher risk of cancer," he said, adding that it's important to recognize those who have already suffered the consequences of those on-the-job hazards.
"We also want to honor and remember those firefighters who lost their lives because they're the ones who paved the way for better equipment, better procedures for firefighters of today, like my son who's a fireman-medic," he said.
Abundiz's son, Jeremy, traveled with the crew to New York before being called back to California to help provide medical support to those fighting the raging wildfires.
Abundiz's wife, Peggy, is also part of the crew, acting as a spokeswoman and helping to manage the large e-mail response to the crew's work.
"Sometimes I, I just sit there and cry," she said. "That's all I can do, really."
"Code 3 for a Cure" will expand its mission next year. The crew plans to follow two new routes, designed to cover as much of the United States as possible. It will also make stops in Canada.
Thoracic Surgery
BIRMINGHAM, Ala -- June 7, 2008 -- A simple variation in a surgical technique to reduce acute and chronic pain following lung surgery further reduces pain and helps patients return to normal activity more quickly than the previous technique, according to a study published in the June issue of the Annals of Thoracic Surgery.
Instead of crushing the intercostal muscle and nerve that lies between the ribs during rib spreading when performing a lung resection, Robert J. Cerfolio, MD, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, teases the muscle and nerve away from the rib and then moves it out of the way before spreading the ribs. This leads to less trauma to the muscle and intercostal nerve and dramatically reduces postoperative pain.
This new technique is a further modification of a concept that Dr. Cerfolio and colleagues reported in 2005. In this new modification, the muscle is no longer divided but is allowed to dangle under the rib spreader, further avoiding trauma to the nerve and muscle.
For the 160 patients participating in this study, those who received the modified muscle flap technique reported that pain was reduced both in the hospital and after surgery at weeks 3, 4, 8, and 12. Those who received the modified muscle flap procedure had lower pain scores and required less pain medications than those who did not. They also were more likely to return to normal activities within 8 to 12 weeks after the surgery.
The study used sophisticated, objective measurements of pain, including multiple pain score surveys, and measurements of patients' pain medication usage.
SOURCE: University of Alabama at Birmingham
_http://snipurl. com/2ewp9_ (http://snipurl. com/2ewp9)
[www_docguide_ com]
Instead of crushing the intercostal muscle and nerve that lies between the ribs during rib spreading when performing a lung resection, Robert J. Cerfolio, MD, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, teases the muscle and nerve away from the rib and then moves it out of the way before spreading the ribs. This leads to less trauma to the muscle and intercostal nerve and dramatically reduces postoperative pain.
This new technique is a further modification of a concept that Dr. Cerfolio and colleagues reported in 2005. In this new modification, the muscle is no longer divided but is allowed to dangle under the rib spreader, further avoiding trauma to the nerve and muscle.
For the 160 patients participating in this study, those who received the modified muscle flap technique reported that pain was reduced both in the hospital and after surgery at weeks 3, 4, 8, and 12. Those who received the modified muscle flap procedure had lower pain scores and required less pain medications than those who did not. They also were more likely to return to normal activities within 8 to 12 weeks after the surgery.
The study used sophisticated, objective measurements of pain, including multiple pain score surveys, and measurements of patients' pain medication usage.
SOURCE: University of Alabama at Birmingham
_http://snipurl. com/2ewp9_ (http://snipurl. com/2ewp9)
[www_docguide_ com]
A Cure Just Out of Reach for Richland Man
Laura Kate Zaichkin, Herald Staff Writer
Lonnie Cook had gone through 10 rounds of chemo in nearly as many months when he told his wife in March that he no longer wanted the treatment that was slowing the progression of his rare terminal cancer.
That also was around the time the 43-year-old Richland man and his wife saw an article online about a surgery that was curing those who had his form of cancer.
"It was almost like it was meant to be," said Lori Cook, 38.
Lori called Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital and explained that her husband suffered from Leiomyosarcoma, which affects one in every 4 million people. Lonnie's tumor is in his abdomen, near his pancreas.
"They seemed really excited that they would be able to do this again," Lori said.
The surgery has only been done twice before -- once at Jackson Memorial and another time at Atlanta's Emory Clinic. The cutting-edge surgery involves removing several organs, including the intestines, from the body and removing the tumor in the abdomen.
The Florida woman whose cancer was treated by the surgery fully recovered.
"There may be a cure out there for me," Lonnie said.
But it's been nearly two months since the first call to the Miami hospital and Lonnie still is no closer to a surgical cure for the cancer that doctors say could kill him in less than two years.
His insurance has twice denied covering the more than $1 million surgery because it is considered experimental and out of the company's geographical coverage area, the Cooks say.
"You can't just have a number to a person," Lonnie said. "How can they just tell me, 'Sorry, you're out of territory?'
"It's just hurdle after hurdle," he added. "There is a cure, but your insurance won't cover it."
The Cooks plan to appeal their insurers -- First Choice's Northwest Sheet Metal Workers -- for a third time, and many in the health care community are on their side.
Lonnie and Lori leave this weekend for a consult at Jackson Memorial. There, they hope to get ideas from physicians and hospital staff about how to approach their insurance company. They also are traveling to Emory Clinic and New York's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center this month to do the same.
"When I talked to (the hospitals), they're excited about it," Lori said. "This could be huge for them.
"I think this appointment in Miami is going to tell us a lot."
The Cooks might also approach surgical equipment manufacturers, such as GE, because sometimes they sponsor surgeries, Lori said.
Even if insurance does agree to cover the expensive surgery, it will only cover about 50 percent because it is considered a transplant surgery.
"It's kind of a gray area," Lonnie said.
They're hoping to work with the hospitals so the surgery is coded in a way that would allow insurance to cover 80 percent of the cost, they said.
Meanwhile, family and friends are in the planning phases for community fundraisers for the Cooks.
Lori and Lonnie's 18-year-old nephew is establishing a foundation called Team 24 -- named after Lonnie's baseball number. Team 24 will allow companies to sponsor the cause, then the sponsors' names will be printed on shirts that will be sold, said Micah Butler, a senior at Kamiakin High School.
"I'm to the point where I want to make a difference," Butler said.
Lori said Butler's effort is good timing since she's been told several community members are in the beginning stages of fundraising plans for Lonnie.
"Raising money and getting all that is going to be fun in getting to help him," said Reily Thorington, 14, Lori's daughter.
Butler and the Cooks say Lonnie's life is the most important thing and if insurance doesn't cover the surgery, they'll have to consider other options.
"You sell everything," Lonnie said. "I'm 43 years old. I feel good.
What a Breakthrough for LMS, Where there is Life there is Hope!
Lonnie Cook had gone through 10 rounds of chemo in nearly as many months when he told his wife in March that he no longer wanted the treatment that was slowing the progression of his rare terminal cancer.
That also was around the time the 43-year-old Richland man and his wife saw an article online about a surgery that was curing those who had his form of cancer.
"It was almost like it was meant to be," said Lori Cook, 38.
Lori called Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital and explained that her husband suffered from Leiomyosarcoma, which affects one in every 4 million people. Lonnie's tumor is in his abdomen, near his pancreas.
"They seemed really excited that they would be able to do this again," Lori said.
The surgery has only been done twice before -- once at Jackson Memorial and another time at Atlanta's Emory Clinic. The cutting-edge surgery involves removing several organs, including the intestines, from the body and removing the tumor in the abdomen.
The Florida woman whose cancer was treated by the surgery fully recovered.
"There may be a cure out there for me," Lonnie said.
But it's been nearly two months since the first call to the Miami hospital and Lonnie still is no closer to a surgical cure for the cancer that doctors say could kill him in less than two years.
His insurance has twice denied covering the more than $1 million surgery because it is considered experimental and out of the company's geographical coverage area, the Cooks say.
"You can't just have a number to a person," Lonnie said. "How can they just tell me, 'Sorry, you're out of territory?'
"It's just hurdle after hurdle," he added. "There is a cure, but your insurance won't cover it."
The Cooks plan to appeal their insurers -- First Choice's Northwest Sheet Metal Workers -- for a third time, and many in the health care community are on their side.
Lonnie and Lori leave this weekend for a consult at Jackson Memorial. There, they hope to get ideas from physicians and hospital staff about how to approach their insurance company. They also are traveling to Emory Clinic and New York's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center this month to do the same.
"When I talked to (the hospitals), they're excited about it," Lori said. "This could be huge for them.
"I think this appointment in Miami is going to tell us a lot."
The Cooks might also approach surgical equipment manufacturers, such as GE, because sometimes they sponsor surgeries, Lori said.
Even if insurance does agree to cover the expensive surgery, it will only cover about 50 percent because it is considered a transplant surgery.
"It's kind of a gray area," Lonnie said.
They're hoping to work with the hospitals so the surgery is coded in a way that would allow insurance to cover 80 percent of the cost, they said.
Meanwhile, family and friends are in the planning phases for community fundraisers for the Cooks.
Lori and Lonnie's 18-year-old nephew is establishing a foundation called Team 24 -- named after Lonnie's baseball number. Team 24 will allow companies to sponsor the cause, then the sponsors' names will be printed on shirts that will be sold, said Micah Butler, a senior at Kamiakin High School.
"I'm to the point where I want to make a difference," Butler said.
Lori said Butler's effort is good timing since she's been told several community members are in the beginning stages of fundraising plans for Lonnie.
"Raising money and getting all that is going to be fun in getting to help him," said Reily Thorington, 14, Lori's daughter.
Butler and the Cooks say Lonnie's life is the most important thing and if insurance doesn't cover the surgery, they'll have to consider other options.
"You sell everything," Lonnie said. "I'm 43 years old. I feel good.
What a Breakthrough for LMS, Where there is Life there is Hope!
Unique Transplant Surgery Beats Cancer
Surgeons Take Out Organs, Remove Tumors, and Then Put Organs Back
By Denise Mann
WebMD Medical News
Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD
March 24, 2008 -- Florida transplant surgeons announced the first successful multi-organ transplant in which they temporarily took out all of the organs in the abdomen of a 63-year-old South Florida woman with a rare type of cancer so they could remove the tumor and its blood supply.
The surgical team discussed the 15-hour surgery at a news conference Monday at the University of Miami/Jackson Medical Center in Florida.
"This is very brand new and unique approach," says Tomoaki Kato, MD, the transplant surgeon who led the operation. "We have done a multi-organ transplant before, but not in the same person. We have removed multiple organs and then put them back in another person. It is very risky and definitely one of the most challenging surgeries of my career."
But so far, so good.
The surgery took place three weeks ago. The patient, Brooke Zepp, is doing "great," Kato tells WebMD. "She is considered cured at this point, but only time will prove its long-term efficacy."
When Zepp watched a graphic video of the grueling surgery during the news conference, she held back tears and said she couldn't believe it was her.
Vexing Tumor Location The transplant surgery was so tricky because the tumor, called a leiomyosarcoma, was located deep in the patient's abdomen and wrapped around the aorta and the base of the celiac and superior-mesenteric arteries. These arteries supply blood to the stomach, pancreas, liver, spleen, small intestine, and much of the large intestine.
"If we tried to remove this tumor in the usual way, it would cause damage to the organs supplied by all these arteries," Kato said at the news conference. "This is considered inoperable using a usual surgical approach."
There was literally no room to remove the tumor without damaging the organs. Given six months to live and told that the tumor was inoperable by multiple surgeons, Zepp underwent a combination of chemotherapy and radiation to kill the cancer at other medical centers, but the treatments did not work.
Organs Put on Ice "We took a very unusual approach and took everything out of the body temporarily," Kato explains. "All the intra-abdominal organs and part of the aorta were temporarily removed, chilled, and preserved outside the patient's body."
Then, the tumor and the vessels were removed from the organs and placed in an ice-cold basin. "The blood vessels were then replaced with artificial ones and all the organs were reimplanted in their normal position."
This proved the most difficult part of the surgery, he tells WebMD. "After removing the organs, we have to make sure that we will be able to put them back in a good condition." No anti-rejection drugs are needed as the patient is getting back the same organs that were removed.
This may be the tip of the iceberg, Kato says. "The new surgery may one day benefit people with other tumors that are located in the same area."
By Denise Mann
WebMD Medical News
Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD
March 24, 2008 -- Florida transplant surgeons announced the first successful multi-organ transplant in which they temporarily took out all of the organs in the abdomen of a 63-year-old South Florida woman with a rare type of cancer so they could remove the tumor and its blood supply.
The surgical team discussed the 15-hour surgery at a news conference Monday at the University of Miami/Jackson Medical Center in Florida.
"This is very brand new and unique approach," says Tomoaki Kato, MD, the transplant surgeon who led the operation. "We have done a multi-organ transplant before, but not in the same person. We have removed multiple organs and then put them back in another person. It is very risky and definitely one of the most challenging surgeries of my career."
But so far, so good.
The surgery took place three weeks ago. The patient, Brooke Zepp, is doing "great," Kato tells WebMD. "She is considered cured at this point, but only time will prove its long-term efficacy."
When Zepp watched a graphic video of the grueling surgery during the news conference, she held back tears and said she couldn't believe it was her.
Vexing Tumor Location The transplant surgery was so tricky because the tumor, called a leiomyosarcoma, was located deep in the patient's abdomen and wrapped around the aorta and the base of the celiac and superior-mesenteric arteries. These arteries supply blood to the stomach, pancreas, liver, spleen, small intestine, and much of the large intestine.
"If we tried to remove this tumor in the usual way, it would cause damage to the organs supplied by all these arteries," Kato said at the news conference. "This is considered inoperable using a usual surgical approach."
There was literally no room to remove the tumor without damaging the organs. Given six months to live and told that the tumor was inoperable by multiple surgeons, Zepp underwent a combination of chemotherapy and radiation to kill the cancer at other medical centers, but the treatments did not work.
Organs Put on Ice "We took a very unusual approach and took everything out of the body temporarily," Kato explains. "All the intra-abdominal organs and part of the aorta were temporarily removed, chilled, and preserved outside the patient's body."
Then, the tumor and the vessels were removed from the organs and placed in an ice-cold basin. "The blood vessels were then replaced with artificial ones and all the organs were reimplanted in their normal position."
This proved the most difficult part of the surgery, he tells WebMD. "After removing the organs, we have to make sure that we will be able to put them back in a good condition." No anti-rejection drugs are needed as the patient is getting back the same organs that were removed.
This may be the tip of the iceberg, Kato says. "The new surgery may one day benefit people with other tumors that are located in the same area."
Miami Doctor Breaks New Ground in Cancer Surgery
Mon Mar 24, 2008 7:28pm EDT
By Tom Brown
MIAMI (Reuters) - Dr. Tomoaki Kato had to remove a lot more than a cancerous tumor during an unprecedented operation on a 63-year-old Florida woman earlier this month.
To get to the tumor, which was buried deep in Brooke Zepp's abdomen and threatened to kill her within months, the organ transplant specialist said he first had to remove her stomach, pancreas, spleen, liver and small and large intestines.
The organs were chilled and preserved outside Zepp's body during a painstaking 15-hour operation at the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Medical Center.
They were re-implanted in their normal position after the tumor -- which was about 2 inches in diameter and wrapped around Zepp's aorta and the base of two other arteries -- was removed.
Kato said that never before have six organs been removed from a patient's abdomen to allow doctors to go after a malignant growth previously considered inoperable because of its location.
"There's nothing really simple here," Kato, who trained as a surgeon at Osaka University in Japan, told Reuters on Monday. "I don't want to say acrobatic but it's kind of, in a way. It's a very tricky operation.
"We've done pieces of this surgery many times but not the whole thing like this," said the 11-year veteran of the University of Miami Transplant Institute who led a team of doctors that operated on Zepp.
Zepp was diagnosed with leiomyosarcoma, a rare form of cancer. But Kato said the type of surgery he performed on March 4 ultimately could benefit people with more common diseases.
"There might be a lot of applications," he said.
During the operation, Zepp, who was expected to be discharged from her Miami hospital this week, had many blood vessels replaced with artificial ones made of Gore-Tex.
"She came to me out of desperation,' Kato said. "I'm really glad it worked out well."
(Reporting by Tom Brown; Editing by Michael Christie and Xavier Briand)
By Tom Brown
MIAMI (Reuters) - Dr. Tomoaki Kato had to remove a lot more than a cancerous tumor during an unprecedented operation on a 63-year-old Florida woman earlier this month.
To get to the tumor, which was buried deep in Brooke Zepp's abdomen and threatened to kill her within months, the organ transplant specialist said he first had to remove her stomach, pancreas, spleen, liver and small and large intestines.
The organs were chilled and preserved outside Zepp's body during a painstaking 15-hour operation at the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Medical Center.
They were re-implanted in their normal position after the tumor -- which was about 2 inches in diameter and wrapped around Zepp's aorta and the base of two other arteries -- was removed.
Kato said that never before have six organs been removed from a patient's abdomen to allow doctors to go after a malignant growth previously considered inoperable because of its location.
"There's nothing really simple here," Kato, who trained as a surgeon at Osaka University in Japan, told Reuters on Monday. "I don't want to say acrobatic but it's kind of, in a way. It's a very tricky operation.
"We've done pieces of this surgery many times but not the whole thing like this," said the 11-year veteran of the University of Miami Transplant Institute who led a team of doctors that operated on Zepp.
Zepp was diagnosed with leiomyosarcoma, a rare form of cancer. But Kato said the type of surgery he performed on March 4 ultimately could benefit people with more common diseases.
"There might be a lot of applications," he said.
During the operation, Zepp, who was expected to be discharged from her Miami hospital this week, had many blood vessels replaced with artificial ones made of Gore-Tex.
"She came to me out of desperation,' Kato said. "I'm really glad it worked out well."
(Reporting by Tom Brown; Editing by Michael Christie and Xavier Briand)
