A Tale Of Recovery Of Belle Mcguckin
It was in July, 1998, that Belle experienced a heavy cough. She was suggested a chest X- Ray, which revealed a pleural thickening on her right lung. A thoracic surgeon conducted an open chest biopsy just to discover that she had metastatic mesothelioma on 23rd October, 1998. This was a shock because she knew that men who had an asbestos exposure are susceptible to mesothelioma in their 60s and 70s. She also knew that the disease was incurable.
At first, she did not believe that she was going to die very soon. The first two days of this news were filled with darkness until the third day when she found a hope. Her sister and friends started surfing the net for information on Mesothelioma and found out the different clinical trials offering innovative therapies. In these days she spent her time in finding out other people who were living with the disease, the surgeons and the researchers. With knowledge gained through researches, Belle felt encouraged although moments of tears and depression were still prevalent.
On 5th January 1999, she made her way to Boston to find out whether she could participate in a clinical trail in which Dr. David Sugarbaker, chief of Thoracic Surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital was to try out a new protocol. With adequate organ functions, she was quite confident of passing the trial. Life totally changed when she came to know that she was getting an opportunity to be operated in place of a man who could not be operated because his disease has made an immense advancement.
The five and a half hours of heavy surgery involved an extra pleural pneumonectomy in which the pleura, lung and the pericardium were all removed and replaced with a new gortex pericardium and diaphragm. This was followed by a heated wash with Cispaltin. Belle is recovering steadily and the long incision mark is gradually fading away. With this, her trauma has also bid her a good bye.