The Patient Speaks
Printer-friendly version
Read more about this story.
By Carol Smith
InvestigateWest
Read the whole package here.
Karen Lewis knew what the possibilities were when a routine medical exam returned an abnormal white blood cell count on her four years ago.
“I worked in a cancer center,” she said. “I knew.”
The 57-year-old, long-time hospital pharmacist was soon diagnosed with a pre-cancerous form of blood cancer called Myelodysplastic Syndrome. Her doctor immediately ordered her to stop working with or around chemo agents.
“I started working with chemo in 1993,” said Lewis, who has worked for years at the University of Maryland Medical Center. “Back then there were much less restrictive policies (around handling chemo.)”
Her attitude then was similar to those of many of her peers.
They had been advised to wear “chemo protective gowns” made of heavy paper, with little cuffs, and double gloves.
“But nobody really did (wear double gloves) because it made it hard to manipulate needles,” she said. “And no one said if we didn’t follow (the guidelines) we were at any greater risk.”
She also doesn’t recall being advised to wear a mask.
“My thinking was – if I don’t actually stick myself or spill on skin, I’m OK,” she said. “I never thought of any other way (it could be) adversely affecting me.”
In particular, she never realized that the type of “laminar flow hoods” the hospital used – the commonly recommended type at the time – blew potentially contaminated air back in her direction.
Since her diagnosis, she said the pharmacy where she worked has tightened its controls and upgraded its safety equipment to more advanced technologies with more containment features and more tightly controlled ventilation.
Lewis has begun transfusions to try to keep her cell counts normal. Ultimately, her only hope for a cure lies in a bone marrow transplant. In the meantime, she hopes other institutions will upgrade their safety equipment and training for workers. And she advises others to be vigilant about cancer screening if they’ve worked with chemo.
“Now, since I left, everybody who works with chemo has to have a blood test once a year and urinalysis,” she said. “Maybe that was my contribution.”
Read more about this story.
Wealth & Poverty | February 2013
End of the Line
“It was just common knowledge – when you turn 18, you’re done,” Sharayah Lane said. “After the checks stopped coming, we all went our separate ways."
End of the Line is a new series by Claudia Rowe asking what happens when teens get too old for foster care in Washington State.
Photo Credit: Jon Connell/Flickr
Environment | January 2013
Sharecroppers of the Sea
Meet America's newest sharecroppers. Guys like Jared Bright who vie for control of the Pacific fishing industry's lower rungs, the only rungs that seem to be left. They don't own the halibut, not even when it lands in their boats.
Lee van der Voo uncovers absentee landlords, brokers and bankers, and fish quota that costs more than your house — realities that fly in the face of more official, rosy portrayals.
Health | November 2012
The Mystery of MS
Kids with multiple sclerosis, historically an adult disorder, offer researchers a set of intriguing new clues about the disease that could lead, eventually, to better treatments.
With adolescent MS on the rise in the Northwest, Carol Smith meets a young patient who is learning to live with the disease at the age of 16, and the doctors and scientists trying to keep her healthy.
Environment | October 2012
Clean Water: The Next Act
In 1972, Congress enacted legislation to end water pollution. Forty years later, American rivers and lakes are still badly contaminated, and new threats to clean water are outpacing the Act's enforcers. Follow along as InvestigateWest and EarthFix investigate.
Immigration | September 2012
Center of Detention
The Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Wash., generates millions in revenue for its private operator by processing thousands of deportation cases each year. Oscar Estrada is one of those cases.
Environment | June 2012
Parks for Sale
As local governments trade away public parkland, the safeguards put in place by the Land and Water Conservation Fund to protect that land are full of holes.
Robert McClure tracked a handful of park conversions for more than three years, reviewed thousands of pages of documents and compiled a database of over 40,000 park grants.
Public Health | January 2012
The Prescription Epidemic
As Washington enacts the strongest prescription drug law in the country, InvestigateWest presents a six-month investigation into the origins of the prescription epidemic, the challenge it poses for communities, and what lessons other states might learn.
Check out the full list of news outlets publishing the story, and visit KCTS.org to watch Prescription for Abuse, a KCTS 9/InvestigateWest documentary and roundtable with prescription drug experts.