It was Sept. 3, 2010. Tracey Cost was sitting in her car on her lunch break when the doctor called to tell her she had breast cancer.
She remembers the way the sky looked and the noise from traffic.
“All these big words, and I just remember looking up at the sky, and I’m saying ‘What is she saying?’”
Cost told her story Monday afternoon at the grand opening of Griffin Hospital’s Center for Breast Wellness.
The new center, which houses all of Griffin’s breast cancer diagnostic and treatment services, opened two weeks ago after a major grassroots fund-raising effort.
The center aims to help people like Cost, a 43-year-old Seymour resident, get quick results and personalized treatment.
“There’s more to you than your breast,” said Dr. Zandra Cheng, the new medical director for the center. “And we really are here to take care of the person as a whole … We really want the people in this community to be well.”
Cost, whose cancer was found very early, went through six weeks of radiation therapy in October and November and had a partial lumpectomy. She is now in remission.
“I still have both my ta-tas,” Cost joked. “It’s very important that people go for their mammograms.”
The Center
Griffin was treating breast cancer before the Center for Breast Wellness opened. It happened in various buildings and outpatient offices.
The new center brings all the services together in one wing of the hospital’s cancer center, and adds the latest treatment and diagnostic equipment, according to hospital vice president William Powanda.
The two-year effort cost about $2 million, according to Patrick Charmel, Griffin Hospital President and CEO.
Griffin is still trying to raise about $570,000 more, Powanda said.
The Need
Charmel said that hospital research found that fewer women in the Valley were getting mammograms compared to other places.
He attributed the lack of preventative care to anxiety about the process and traditionally long wait times for a diagnosis.
Click play on the video at top to hear Charmel talk about the research.
With the opening of the new breast wellness center, Griffin is able to turn around results by the end of the business day, if patients have time to wait.
“Amazing things are going to happen,” Cheng said. “Lives are going to be touched.”
The following report includes health data for the Valley and state. Page 115 has breast cancer mortality rates for several years during the 1990s and 2000s.
