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inthisissue
From the CEO: Door No. 1 or Door No. 2? 2
Welcome New Internist and New Family
Medicine Physician 3
Are Delayed Immunizations Safe? 4
Health Takes Center Stage at
SD Women's Expo 5
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A PUBLICATION FROM YOUR FRIENDS AT HURON REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER
Summer • 2014
Betty Sass with her 6-year-old grandson Jessie in
one of several gardens she harvests and puts up.
When busy grandmother and
former nursing home caretaker
Betty Sass, age 68, learned she had
colorectal cancer, Huron Regional
Medical Center was there for her.
Joh
n
Robert,
MD
SURGERY
for Colorectal Cancer
"I look after two of my grandsons, Joseph
and Jessie, and one of my great-grandsons,
Taten, and they keep me busy," Sass says.
"When I started having trouble with my bowel
movements last summer, I knew I had to take
care of my own health."
Sass saw John Robert, MD, FACS, a general
surgeon at HRMC Physicians Clinic, for a
colonoscopy in September 2013. Dr. Robert
discovered a large, cancerous tumor.
He started Sass on a course of radiation
and chemotherapy to try to shrink the
tumor and preserve as much of her colon
as possible. After two months of treatment,
the tumor had grown and Sass was
experiencing abdominal pain. So,
Dr. Robert removed most of her colon and
performed a colostomy in December 2013.
"A colostomy is a life-changing
procedure," says Sass' primary care
physician Akash Taggarse, MD, an
internist and gerontologist with
Tschetter & Hohm Clinic. "Betty's tumor
is gone, but she no longer has bowel
movements. Instead, she has to carry an
ostomy bag, which takes some getting used to."
