In 1989 I moved to Victoria with my wife, Claire, and our two daughters, Amy and Stephanie, drawn by the Island’s temperate climate and the promise of a healthier way of life. It felt like the right place for an active family: close to nature, community, and opportunity.
Claire was an ICU nurse, so living near Royal Jubilee Hospital (RJH), where she would be working, factored into our plans in a practical way. What I couldn’t have known then was how central that hospital would become to my life in the decades that followed.
In 2003, at the age of 54, I was diagnosed with base of tongue and oropharyngeal (throat) cancer. The news came as a shock. I had never smoked, didn’t drink, and had kept active, getting outdoors frequently. My otolaryngologist, Dr. Irvin Pathak, asked for confirmation, just to be sure.
That was when I learned that cancer doesn’t discriminate.
Dr. Pathak confirmed that the cancer had indeed metastasized from my tongue and into my throat. As we discussed next steps, I asked: What if I do nothing? How long will I have?
A very short time, was Dr. Pathak’s response. That made the decision clear, and in the weeks that followed, I began the recommended radiation treatment.
In 2018, I experienced a serious side effect from the radiation: my jawbone had deteriorated and would need to be rebuilt using bone from my leg through a fibula flap surgery, as well as a titanium implant. From that point on, careful self-monitoring of my throat and mouth became a regular part of my life.
This past October, I began having increasing difficulty swallowing. I was referred by my family doctor, Dr. Kevin Wylie, to Gastroenterologist Dr. Dustin Loomes who performed an esophageal dilation at RJH to relieve my tightening throat. During the procedure, he noticed a new growth. I returned to Dr. Pathak for another biopsy and I received yet another diagnosis. The cancer was back. I again came face-to-face with the battle I thought was behind me.
Two decades had passed since my last encounter with cancer, and with that time came a powerful gift: access to surgical approaches that had never been an option for me before, and the opportunity to avoid going through radiation once again.
As a donor to the Victoria Hospitals Foundation for the last decade, I was one of the proud contributors to the da Vinci surgical robot project—but what I didn’t know yet, was that it had recently begun to be used for ENT procedures.
I was referred to Head & Neck Surgical Oncologist Dr. Sena Turkdogan, a robotic specialist and the first ENT surgeon to introduce robotics at RJH. She explained that my cancer was located in an area that was extremely difficult to visualize, where standard surgical instruments simply couldn’t reach. The robot would make it possible to access the tumor without cutting through parts of my tongue or jaw just to see it.
At the age of 77, I can’t overstate what this meant to me. Cutting through my tongue or jaw would have meant a longer, far more painful hospitalization, with no chance of being able to swallow or speak right away. The possibility of avoiding that was nothing short of life-changing, so I underwent robotic surgery this past February.
When I woke up, I felt so well my daughter Amy was able to pick me up that day. Just hours after my operation, we were able to begin my recovery at home, watching television together in my living room.
Within a week, I had moved from prescription pain medication to Tylenol and was able to leave the house for short outings. By the one month mark, I had fully returned to my normal routine, riding my bike and spending time outdoors. Thanks to the small incisions made possible by the robotic system, my recovery was both smooth and relatively quick.
I am deeply grateful to Dr. Turkdogan, Dr. Pathak, and Dr. Loomes, along with my nurses, and the surgical, anesthesia, and recovery teams whose expertise and compassion made my care possible.
Over the decades, I have come to understand the hospital system from many perspectives: as the husband of a nurse, as a patient, and as a donor myself to the Victoria Hospitals Foundation. Without the support of fellow Foundation champions, I, along with a growing list of countless others, would not have had access to minimally invasive surgery close to home. The benefits of this technology extend far beyond any one patient, strengthening our care teams, our hospitals, and our community. I’m grateful to be part of that shared effort here on the Island.
