Lynette Bisconti: I have had the privilege to volunteer my time to Cancer Treatment Centers of America and I do that because they continue to deliver on this promise that they made to their patients.
Cancer Treatment Centers of America has grown. It is much more beautiful than it was even 9 years ago, and the doctors have not lost that wonderful, compassionate, respectful feeling for the patients. So, when I come here now I come here with a sense of pride because this place continues to be what I had always hoped it would continue to be and I still tell everybody that I know that if, God forbid, you are in that position, go there, give yourself that gift.
If you are a person who thinks ‘I am just not that kind of a fighter, I cannot do it’, I was you. I was saying in those first few months, ‘I cannot do this. Dying is so much easier’, but what you get if you survive and if you do this, is so rewarding and so wonderful, it is worth every mile traveled, it is worth every second spent in a hospital and it is just worth everything, everything.
Dode Hammack: Don’t ever let anyone takeaway your home. I will reiterate again, there is no expiration date stamped on your body anywhere. If you believe, if you truly want to live, if you truly want to beat this disease, it can be done. I am living, breathing proof that it can be done. I was given a death sentence and I am here today because of the treatment of Cancer Treatment Centers.
Heidi Larder (nurse): Almost all of my patients have been somewhere else first and when they come here, that’s when they know they are really taken care of. But a lot of patients get treated closer to their home first and then they decide to go somewhere else once they are not happy with their treatment.
We have many, many patients that have been told, you know, they only have six months; they only have six weeks. No doctor is God and no one can tell you exactly when you are going to die or when you are not going to be able to do anything anymore with your life.
Dr. Edgar Staren: Doctors don’t know how long a patient has to live. Unfortunately, we get so used to hearing statistics, we are trained in medical school to see numbers and associate a certain disease process and disease stage with a certain lifespan. The only person that knows how long a patient has left is God and for clinicians to take away that hope from a patient is just simply not right.
Our obligation is to identify if the patient wants to fight and if that patient wants to fight, we want to be there to fight with them and provide them opportunities to help beat the cancer. No one can tell them how long they have to live. All you can do is take that hope away and that’s just simply not right.
Lynette Bisconti: You know, if you are beaten down, if you are sick and tired from having been treated elsewhere, if you have been given no hope - my only words would be ‘take one last chance and get to Cancer Treatment Centers of America’ because I guarantee you, the minute you walk through these doors your hope will be restored, compassion will be given to you and you will be given an opportunity to get your fight back because people will be fighting with you - every step of the way.