The Nebraska Medical Center has been recognized for service excellence for a sixth consecutive year under the J.D. Power and Associates Distinguished Hospital Program.SM This distinction acknowledges a strong commitment by the hospital to provide “An Outstanding Inpatient Experience.”

“In earning this distinction, The Nebraska Medical Center has truly demonstrated its commitment to service excellence,” said John Clark, director of provider programs at J.D. Power and Associates.

“The Nebraska Medical Center has created a highly patient-focused culture that stresses the importance of meeting patient needs at every touch point. The achievement of this award speaks volumes about the facility’s leadership, nurses, doctors and employees.”
 
The service excellence distinction was determined by surveying recently discharged patients about their perceptions of their hospital visit and comparing the results to the national benchmarks established in the annual J.D. Power and Associates National Hospital Service Performance Study.SM

The telephone-based research conducted among The Nebraska Medical Center patients focuses on the five key drivers of patient satisfaction with their overall inpatient experience. These drivers, which were identified in the national study, are: speed and efficiency; dignity and respect; comfort; information and communication; and emotional support.

The Nebraska Medical Center exceeds the national benchmark study score for inpatient satisfaction. The hospital performs well, compared with the national study, in providing patients with dignity and respect. The Nebraska Medical Center receives particularly high ratings for the courtesy of the doctors and nurses. The hospital also performs well in providing patients with emotional support, receiving notably high ratings for confidence and trust in the doctor’s skill level and the treatment of family and friends.

Seventy-six percent of The Nebraska Medical Center inpatients surveyed say they “definitely will” return to the facility if needed, and 75 percent say they would recommend the facility to family and friends.

“To be recognized as a hospital of distinction for the sixth straight year is a great reflection on the care our physicians and staff strive to provide each day,” said Glenn Fosdick, FACHE, president and CEO of The Nebraska Medical Center.  “Knowing that this recognition comes from feedback from our patients is also very significant.”

Nongovernmental, acute-care hospitals throughout the nation are eligible for the J.D. Power and Associates Distinguished Hospital recognition for inpatient, maternity, cardiovascular, emergency and outpatient services. Distinction is valid for one year, after which time the hospital may reapply for this recognition.

About J.D. Power and Associates
Headquartered in Westlake Village, Calif., J.D. Power and Associates is a global marketing information services company providing forecasting, performance improvement, social media and customer satisfaction insights and solutions. The company’s quality and satisfaction measurements are based on responses from millions of consumers annually. For more information on car reviews and ratings, car insurance, health insurance, cell phone ratings, and more, please visit JDPower.com. J.D. Power and Associates is a business unit of The McGraw-Hill Companies.

About The Nebraska Medical Center
With a reputation for excellence, innovation and extraordinary patient care, The Nebraska Medical Center has earned J.D. Power and Associates’ Hospital of Distinction award for inpatient services for six consecutive years. It also received the 2010 Consumer Choice Award, a mark of patient satisfaction as selected by healthcare consumers and has achieved Magnet recognition status for nursing excellence, Thomson Reuters 100 Top Hospitals Performance Improvement Leader recognition, as well as the Award of Progress from the state of Nebraska’s Edgerton Quality Awards Program.  As the teaching hospital for the University of Nebraska Medical Center, this 624 licensed bed academic medical center has an international reputation for providing solid organ and bone marrow transplantation services and is well known nationally and regionally for its oncology, neurology and cardiology programs.

About The McGraw-Hill Companies
Founded in 1888, The McGraw-Hill Companies is a leading global financial information and education company that helps professionals and students succeed in the Knowledge Economy. With leading brands including Standard & Poor’s, McGraw-Hill Education, Platts energy information services and J.D. Power and Associates, the Corporation has approximately 21,000 employees with more than 280 offices in 40 countries. Sales in 2010 were $6.2 billion. Additional information is available at http://www.mcgraw-hill.com.

No advertising or other promotional use can be made of the information in this release without the express prior written consent of J.D. Power and Associates.

22nd annual rankings recognize hospitals in 94 metro areas and 16 specialties
The Nebraska Medical Center has been ranked in nine specialties, more than any other hospital in the area, in U.S. News Media & World Report’s 2011-12 Best Hospitals rankings. The specialties that qualify as “high performing” according to the publication include cancer, ear, nose and throat, gastroenterology, geriatrics, nephrology, neurology and neurosurgery, orthopedics, pulmonology and urology.

“This recognition reflects the continued commitment of our entire staff to provide extraordinary care to patients dealing with a wide variety of medical challenges; from routine illnesses to the most serious types of cancer or neurological conditions,” said Glenn Fosdick, FACHE, president and CEO of The Nebraska Medical Center.

Nebraska Orthopaedic Hospital, a sister institution of The Nebraska Medical Center, also had a very strong showing in the report, ranking as the 38th best hospital in the country for orthopaedics. It’s the second straight year that NOH has been nationally ranked.

The rankings have been published annually by U.S. News for the past 22 years. They will also be featured in the U.S. News Best Hospitals guidebook, which will go on sale August 30. The latest rankings showcase 720 hospitals out of about 5,000 hospitals nationwide. Each is ranked among the country’s top hospitals in at least one medical specialty and/or ranked among the best hospitals in its metro area.

The core mission of Best Hospitals is to help guide patients who need an especially high level of care because of a difficult surgery, a challenging condition, or added risk because of other health problems or age. “These are referral centers where other hospitals send their sickest patients,” said Avery Comarow, U.S. News Health Rankings Editor. “Hospitals like these are ones you or those close to you should consider when the stakes are high.”

Hard numbers stand behind the rankings in most specialties—death rates, patient safety, procedure volume, and other objective data. Responses to a national survey, in which physicians were asked to name hospitals they consider best in their specialty for the toughest cases, also were factored in.

The rankings cover 16 medical specialties and all 94 metro areas that have at least 500,000 residents and at least one hospital that performed well enough to be ranked.

Neurologists at The Nebraska Medical Center Use Botox to Treat Chronic Migraines

The headaches bothered Tina Bracha for years. The medication helped, but it was not until she started working in the front office of Neurology Consultants of Nebraska that she found out there was another treatment: Botox injections.

“At first I thought, ‘there’s no way this works,’” Bracha recalled. “But it’s been a life-changing thing for me. I don’t have headaches every day anymore. I can go outside on these sunny days; I couldn’t do that before.”

 
Dr. Santamaria gives Tina Bracha her Quarterly Botox injection Nebraska Medical Center neurologist Pam Santamaria, MD gives Bracha Botox injections once every three months. Each treatment involves 33 shots given in the forehead, temples and back of the neck.

“I’ve seen it in the clinic and the research bears it out; about 50% of people who don’t get significant benefit from the oral medicine will get some benefit from Botox,” said Dr. Santamaria. “It either takes the symptoms away completely, or there’s some reduction in symptoms.”

Botox was approved by the Food and Drug Administration as a migraine treatment in October of 2010. Since then, the number of people seeking the treatment has steadily increased in Dr. Santamaria’s clinic.

“Many patients don’t realize that Botox is a treatment for migraines,” she said. “Most people associate it with cosmetic procedures.”

Botox gained popularity as a cosmetic treatment in when it was approved in 2002. That same cosmetic benefit is a side effect of using Botox to treat migraines.

“My kids and husband joke with me,” Bracha said. “I have no forehead wrinkles. It’s an added benefit, but not having migraines outweighs that.  I’d take the wrinkles over the headaches any day.”

Because of the Botox treatments, Bracha has neither.

Dr. Santamaria believes migraines are under-treated in the U.S. An estimated 12% of the population deals with migraines and she believes many of those people are simply unaware that treatments exist.

“Migraines are more common than diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease,” Dr. Santamaria said.

“Migraines are more common in women than men, and occur more in the United States than in other countries.”

Not all bad headaches are migraines, Dr. Santamaria said. There is a specific definition that accompanies a migraine diagnosis.

“A migraine is unilateral, meaning it’s on one side of the head,” she explained. “It’s a throbbing, pounding pain that often causes people to have nausea, motion sickness and sensitivity to light.”

Those were all symptoms Bracha experienced regularly before her regular Botox treatments.

“When the headaches were really bad I’d miss doing things with my kids,” she said. “I had a very hard time just getting out of the house.”

Botox works by blocking communication between nerves and muscles, which keeps muscles from contracting. When it is injected in a patient’s head, it blocks pain receptors the same way it keeps muscles and nerves from communicating.

Doctors initially discovered the Botox effect on migraines while using it to treat a condition called cervical dystonia. Many who suffer from that condition also struggle with migraines. Patients taking Botox began noticing an improvement of their head ache symptoms. Several years of study followed before the FDA approval came.

“There is really no reason why, if a person is having chronic migraines, not to try Botox as a treatment,” said Dr. Santamaria. “It may really help.”

The Nebraska Medical Center’s annual transplant reunion
draws more than 900

Laurie Chiasson again headed for Omaha from her home in Louisiana. This time, it was for a much different reason than when she first came here seven years ago. The 2011 trip was for The Nebraska Medical Center’s annual transplant reunion. Seven years ago, the trip to Omaha was because her son needed a liver transplant.

“He was 110 days old when he got his transplant,” she said.

Baby Anthony’s donor was his father, Mark who stayed home in Louisiana for this year’s reunion. Laurie says Anthony and Mark look almost exactly alike – right down to the scars from the transplant surgery.

No longer a baby, Anthony is getting ready to start second grade.

“You would never know he had a transplant,” Chiasson said of her son. “It’s never held him back. When people ask him about the scar, he just says, ‘When I was a baby, I had a liver transplant. No big deal.’”

The reunion is a big deal for kids like Anthony and their parents. For the children who’ve been through the life-saving surgeries, it’s a chance to meet others who share their unique experiences. For the parents, it’s a similar connection.

“We have a level of worry that others probably don’t have,” Chiasson said of her fellow transplant parents. “Those other parents get it. We give each other support.”

Support is an important part of the transplant program at the medical center. That support comes full circle at the reunion.

“For the transplant team, the physicians, nurses and coordinators, the reunion is a celebration,” said Alan Langnas, D.O., chief of transplantation at The Nebraska Medical Center. “We have seen these patients through the most challenging times in their lives and at the reunion, we see them growing up, graduating from school, having children or grandchildren.”

The 2011 transplant reunion drew 279 patients, and more than 900 patients, family members and volunteers; more than any year before. Children at the transplant reunion enjoyed special activities including games and arts and crafts. Adults will be able to attend educational sessions geared specifically toward their post-transplant needs. The day will wrap up with group pictures featuring each transplant “class” as classified by type of transplant/organ.

The medical center’s kidney transplant program began in 1970; its liver transplant program in 1985 and the intestinal transplant program in 1990.

In the years since, 4,821 kidney, liver, pancreas, heart and intestinal transplants have been performed at the medical center.

Again this year, the transplant reunion featured a special educational and social session called “Teens in Transplant.” Many of the young patients in this group received life-saving transplants as infants or toddlers and have grown up knowing the unique challenges of being a transplant patient.

Eighteen year old Jenna Mihalevich received a small bowel transplant as a baby. The transplant reunions have become an anticipated part of summer for many years.

“It was a wonderful event,” she said. “I hadn’t been to one for two or three years. There’s no one here really around this area that has had a transplant like mine, so it’s great to get together with people who understand what it’s like and to meet new friends.”

The Teens in Transplant portion of the reunion is important socially, but there are also important medical reasons to keep adolescent patients involved with their own health care.

“Teenagers have incredibly busy school and social activities and peer influence is also huge,” said Wendy Grant, MD, transplant surgeon at The Nebraska Medical Center. “Plus, it is a time for experimentations with drugs and alcohol which may damage a transplanted organ. Non-compliance with a medical plan can lead to chronic organ rejection, loss of organ function, the need for re-transplantation and even death.”

Experts say educational and support programs such as the transplant reunion are important and effective ways to keep teens engaged and informed in their own care.

Plans are already moving forward for the 2012 transplant reunion.

AxiaLIF surgery can mean fewer complications, less time in the hospital

It did not feel like spring when Bob Harty hit the golf course. Forty degrees and spitting rain was hardly ideal golf weather. But nothing would keep Harty from making this tee time.

“That shot was three years in the making,” Harty said after teeing off. “A lot of anticipation.”

A bulging disc in his back had kept him away from his favorite hobby for three years.

A slipped disc is a fairly common cause of back and leg pain. It struck Harty in the mid 1990s. He had two surgeries to repair the problem and things were looking up; for a while. The relief did not last.

“The surgeons back then told me, ‘You’re 39 years old. We don’t really want to fuse the spine now if we can wait. Let’s see if technology catches up to your problem,’” Harty recalled. “For about eight years, I was OK.”

When his pain returned, Harty was miserable; unable to do basic chores around the house, unable to play golf; unable to tolerate the four hour car ride to South Dakota to visit his mother.

That’s when he realized technology had caught up with his back problem.”

I went to my doctor to get a referral to see a surgeon,” Harty said.  “He sent me to see Dr. Lennarson.”

Peter Lennarson, MD, neurosurgeon at The Nebraska Medical Center and director of the hospital’s spine center met with Harty and explained a minimally invasive surgical approach called AxiaLIF.

“The traditional surgical approach to removing the disc and fusing the spine involves accessing the spine from the front, through an incision in the abdomen,” explained Dr. Lennarson. “If more work is required on the patient from the back, they are moved to a different operating table, laid on their stomach and another incision is made in the back.”

With the AxiaLIF approach, Dr. Lennarson is able to make on small incision near the patient’s tailbone.

“Through that small incision we are able to create a channel into the spine to get access to that disc,” Dr. Lennarson said. “We use a tool to remove the disc and then through a very small tube, put in a bone graft to replace the disc.

We then use a threaded rod to fix the bones together.”

The surgery was an absolute success,” Harty said with a smile. “I think I knew it the minute I woke up. I was only in the hospital a couple days.  I was up walking the afternoon of the surgery.”

The AxiaLIF surgery takes less time to perform than a traditional open surgery. Its minimally invasive approach typically results in fewer complications after surgery. Even with these advantages, Dr. Lennarson cautions, it is not a procedure for everyone.

“We have to consider things like a patient’s anatomy; everyone is different,” Dr. Lennarson said. “It has to be planned very carefully to make sure it is a safe and effective treatment.”

Months after the completion of his AxiaLIF surgery, and years after his back pain began, Bob Harty is again looking forward to the arrival of spring.

“On my last appointment with Dr. Lennarson, I brought up golf,” Harty said. “He said, ‘I’m not going to say no, but with the twisting involved, you should wait 9-12 months.”

Harty decided to wait the full 12 months to get back to one of his favorite pastimes. One year to the day after his surgery, Bob Harty picked up his golf clubs and headed out to welcome the arrival of spring, and what he felt like is his second life.
“It sure feels good. I had given up the thought of playing again,” Harty said.

Omaha, Neb. – They say big things come in small packages. And a tiny device that is eliminating the need for a heart transplant in some patients proves that. The LVAD, or left ventricular assist device, runs on batteries and only weighs one pound. Yet it can do up to 80 percent of the work for a damaged heart. Doctors once implanted it as a bridge to transplantation – meaning it helped strengthen patients and keep them alive long enough until a donor heart could become available. Now, doctors at The Nebraska Medical Center are the only local specialists certified to use the LVAD as destination therapy – a permanent, life-long option for patients suffering from end-stage heart failure.
“The ability to insert left ventricular assist devices for this disease is going to have more of an impact population-wise in the United States than heart transplantation has,” said John Um, MD, cardiothoracic surgeon at The Nebraska Medical Center.
Dr. Um says the LVAD gives patients another, often better, option than having a transplant.
“Heart transplantation, while the gold standard for treating severe end-stage heart failure, is not the answer for many, if not most patients with severe end-stage heart failure.”
For patients who receive the device, there is typically a dramatic improvement in their quality of life.
“Most people with heart failure are limited to what they can do,” said Dr. Um. “Most of them get to the point where they can’t even engage in activities of daily living. And now people can re-engage in life and do the things they were unable to do, typically for many years.”
“They only have mild limitations with extreme activities,” said Ioana Dumitru, MD, heart failure specialist at The Nebraska Medical Center. “But a lot of them can return to work, can return to doing their daily activities and their hobbies. They can go shopping; go to the movies. We had somebody that roofed their entire house. We currently have somebody out in the community that’s farming full-time.”
The device is implanted during open-heart surgery and connected to the heart via a tube that distributes blood to the body. It’s powered by a small battery pack worn outside the body.
“The device is completely quiet,” said Dr. Dumitru. “It doesn’t interfere with your daily living activities. Overall the device weighs less than a pound. Most people won’t feel it, and it’s so small and can be so well-hidden, we actually had people get married with the device.”
Doctors aren’t sure how long the devices will last, because the technology is fairly new. But should the LVAD fail years down the road, another one can be implanted as a replacement.
“A lot of the younger patients have chosen not to pursue transplantation and continue to live on these devices,” said Dr. Dumitru. “That’s because of limited medications they have to take, less follow-up, fewer future invasive procedures and the ability to still receive the transplant at the back end if it’s necessary. That gives them a higher chance of expanding their life expectancy.”
In some cases, LVADs can even strengthen a patient’s heart.
“A lot of the times what we’re finding is people who were not candidates for transplant may become candidates for transplant,” said Dr. Um. “And in a certain number of people there may also be recovery.” That recovery means some patients may no longer need the device or a transplant.
“The main benefit is that it provides patients and their families another choice on how to treat their cardiac condition,” said Jorge Parodi, executive director of cardiovascular and pulmonary services at The Nebraska Medical Center. “With this designation, The Nebraska Medical Center now offers every possible option for our patients. Before, there was no other local option. They would’ve had to travel to have this device implanted if they weren’t a heart transplant candidate.”
Dr. Dumitru echoed those sentiments. “It opens the door to improved quality of life to a lot of local patients that otherwise would have no hope.”
With a reputation for excellence, innovation and extraordinary patient care, The Nebraska Medical Center has earned J.D. Power and Associates’ Hospital of Distinction award for inpatient services for four consecutive years. It also received the 2010 Consumer Choice Award, a mark of patient satisfaction as selected by healthcare consumers and has achieved Magnet recognition status for nursing excellence, Thomson Reuters 100 Top Hospitals Performance Improvement Leader recognition, as well as the Award of Progress from the state of Nebraska’s Edgerton Quality Awards Program. As the teaching hospital for the University of Nebraska Medical Center, this 624 licensed bed academic medical center has an international reputation for providing solid organ and bone marrow transplantation services and is well known nationally and regionally for its oncology, neurology and cardiology programs. The Nebraska Medical Center can be found online at www.nebraskamed.com

Posted By Jenn Sharp and Lori Booth On October 29, 2010 (11:27 am) In Reader’s Choice, Winners Against The Odds
  Lori grew up on a grain farm in rural Saskatchewan. She has always been governed by innate bravery and was the only girl who raced her snowmobile against the men and she loved to work alongside her parents. She suffered two accidents in her teens that would dictate her winning spirit for the rest of her life. When Lori was 15, she was in a single-vehicle roll over accident and thrown from the pickup. The impact crushed her shoulder and pelvis and required long, determined hours of rehabilitation. Because of the extensive pelvic injuries she sustained, Lori was told she would likely never have children. Two years later, Lori was riding her motorcycle at dusk and hit a crack in the road, breaking her back.
After being told she may never walk, or be a mother, Lori was determined to prove her doctors wrong. I am here today because of her determination and courage. This is her story, in her own words, of the battle she has fought with herself and a medical profession that did not understand her ailment. She came out on top. She beat the odds …
 
I have been asked to detail what is like to live through the darkest time in my life and must first say that I am always amazed at the human spirit. Some of us can endure unbearable pain, day after day and year after year. Yet, we decide to stick around. I am one of those people.
Seven years ago, I was stopped at a red light and was rear-ended on an icy street by a young man traveling too fast for the conditions. Nothing has been the same since that severe whiplash injury.
The pain in the months, and then years, following the accident was unbelievable. My head felt like it would explode every day and I was unsure of where my feet were with each step. I could not turn my neck and if I looked up at anything above eye level, I would nearly pass out.  My hair was only shoulder length, but I couldn’t stand the weight of it. My husband cut it all off every three weeks. Sitting was impossible and felt like a knife surrounded by chunks of glass.
Needless to say, I had to give up on almost every plan my family made. I was unable to sit down at my son’s graduation or at my mom’s funeral. Utterly degrading, I laid down everywhere, even in the waiting room floors of the many doctors I saw.

   
Over forty specialists from Saskatoon, Calgary, Edmonton and Toronto investigated my pain but none had any clue what to do. They all concluded I had developed severe chronic pain.

 
Neurosurgeons told me I was the worst case they’d seen. I was diagnosed with a condition that causes constant freezing and burning sensations. They grew worse over time. I read in a medical journal that most patients with the condition commit suicide and when I read there was no cure, I cried for two days. My excellent family doctor sent me to every expert she could find to help me; her perseverance was astonishing and heartfelt.
Chronic pain took over my life. I knew I was very lucky to have an incredible husband and wonderful kids and many dear friends, but I just couldn’t see a way to keep on living when the pain was there 24 hours a day with no end in sight. The decision to end my life was undertaken with great thought: what if I never got better?
I began to plan how to go out without leaving too much of a mess for my family and contemplated the right day. The panic would hit me like a shot as the time grew closer and the actual day would come and go. I was unable to go through with it. One day, I asked my husband if he’d forgive me if I committed suicide, and he said he and our kids would never get over the loss. He forbid me to do it and promised we’d find a way to make me pain-free. My parents had never used the word “quit” in their lives and my husband has never heard of the word either: How could I?
However, I couldn’t help but feel like a failure. I was not getting better. I was unable to end my own suffering. My eyes were two dark stars of grief and I could not remember my old life. I wondered if it had ever existed or if I had dreamed it all.
Trying to remain tethered to reality was the biggest battle I have ever known. At the end of my rope, I was extremely fortunate to find an amazing procedure with a success rate of over 85 per cent. It was being performed by an equally amazing surgeon, Dr. Ake Nystrom. He operates in the University Medical Centre at Omaha, Nebraska.

 
In June, 2008, I had a procedure called surgical fasciectomy. Dr. Nystrom released the compressed nerves, responsible for years of agony, from the surrounding tissues on the outside of my central nervous system. Dr. Nystrom has successfully performed the procedure on over 1,500 patients, who come to see him from all over the world. It literally saved my life.

For more information, please visit Dr. Nystrom’s website at: www.whiplashinjury.net.
Article taken from Winners Within Us™ Magazine – http://winnerswithinus.com
URL to article: http://winnerswithinus.com/featured/loris-story-winner-against-the-odds/

The Nebraska Medical Center is the first hospital in the region to offer new treatment

Omaha, Neb – It wasn‟t the shock of a breast cancer diagnosis that surprised Linda Briggs the most; it was the ease of the surgical process.

What used to begin with the sometimes painful placement of a wire in the patient‟s breast to mark the location of the tumor can now be done with a much more precise and less painful method.

“It didn‟t feel much different than the poke you feel when you have blood taken,” recalled Briggs.

Doctors call it radioactive seed localization, or RSL. The process uses a thin needle to place a tiny radioactive seed directly on the cancerous lump. It acts as a beacon on which the surgeon can hone in; removing the lump, the seed and ideally, cancerous tissue in the margins around the lump.

“This allows us to have a procedure that is less painful and allows patients to avoid the likelihood of a second operation to clear more cancer,” explained Edibaldo Silva, MD, PhD, surgical oncologist at The Nebraska Medical Center.

“It‟s a seed implanted in the breast. I was thinking it would be something big when I first heard about it,” said Briggs. “But Dr. Silva explained and said it‟s no bigger than a pencil lead.”

The previous and still most common approach to marking a breast cancer tumor with a wire requires the patient to have the wire placed in the breast in the morning, and then have lumpectomy surgery later in the day.

“RSL is an easier procedure,” said Dr. Silva. “We can place the seed the day before surgery, and then the patient can return for surgery first thing the next morning does not have to wait around all day with the wire in place.”

RSL also provides a level of accuracy not typically found with the wire method.

“The surgeon can map the location of the tumor and the margins in a way that is uniform in all directions,” Dr. Silva said. “That‟s something that can‟t be done with a wire. Most importantly, the surgeon can find the least difficult and most direct approach to the area in question. That also allows the scar to be placed in the most cosmetically preferable place.”

The radiation in the seed is not dangerous. It gives off only enough radiation to act as a marker for the surgeon.

“There is zero chance of it causing any radiation damage,” said Dr. Silva. “In fact, the radiation dose given to a patient when they have the seed in place is many, many times less than what you would subject yourself to on an airplane trip from Omaha to New York.”

Use of the radioactive seed is highly regulated. The medical center works closely with nuclear regulatory officials to account for the safety and location of all radioactive material.

The radioactive seed is strictly used for tumor marking. It does not replace radiation or chemotherapy as a method of treating the cancer.
The RSL approach is especially helpful for small tumors detected during mammograms. Tumors so small, they usually cannot be felt by touch. For patient Linda Briggs, it drives home the importance of getting regular mammograms.

 
“I‟m one of the health and wellness directors for my ministry at Salem Baptist Church,” she said. “We‟re trying to get more women to get mammograms. There‟s so much fear out there and so many myths. Women are afraid of getting mammograms. They fear it will lead to having a mastectomy. We have to get them in there earlier.” Dr. Silva cautions women that a diagnosis of breast cancer will not always lead to mastectomy surgery. He believes the better accuracy provided with radioactive seed localization will result in fewer women having surgery to remove their breasts.

 
“Many women are having mastectomies because the initial lumpectomy with the wire localization did not afford them an adequate cancer margin which can be afforded with this surgery,” he explained.

 
Dr. Silva believes mastectomies have become an all-too common approach to dealing with breast cancers that can be treated with much less radical methods.

 
That stance put Briggs at ease the first time she met Dr. Silva.

 
“The first day I met him, Dr. Silva told me, „We‟re not cutting off anything.‟”
Since Dr. Silva began using the RSL approach earlier this year, its popularity has increased. In an average week, four to five patients are having the seed implanted before surgery.

 Dr. Dumitru also credits the transplant program’s expansion to the growing expertise and reputation for excellence at The Nebraska Medical Center and its academic and research partner The University of Nebraska Medical Center.

Dr. Dumitru believes her individual certification will lead to improvements in the medical center’s clinical, educational and research areas.

Omaha World Herald
This article was written by Michael Kelly and published Tuesday, May 25th 2010
 
Michael Kelly

Just back from Kuwait, the head of the Nebraska Medical Center’s international program said Monday that its relationships with other countries have reached “a new dimension.”
Nizar Mamdani says the med center now has formal connections with 118 medical institutions in 44 countries and is offering telepathology and electronic second opinions.
 Yes, surgeons from Omaha are on the cutting edge. But these new services are cutting-edge, too. Specialists can view medical records over a secure Web site and give medical opinions to patients in other nations within two to four days. Telepathology, meanwhile, allows docs in Omaha to examine electronically scanned slides of patients’ biopsied tissue. The program is starting now under agreements with medical centers in Mexico, India, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
 ”This is brand new,” Mamdani said. “It’s just been introduced in this country.” Mamdani (whose first name is pronounced Nee-ZAR) started the International Health Care Services program at the med center 10 years ago. He has traveled hundreds of thousands of miles setting up relationships.
 ”We establish comfort levels between our specialists and those in other countries,” he said. “The idea is the more they know about our institution and programs, the more comfortable they will be in referring patients here.” International patients pay cash, either from their own resources or under health care arrangements with their countries.
 Hundreds of patients have traveled to Omaha the past decade, with more than 40 from 11 countries this year alone.
 A recent success story is Jana Al Yami of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, who turned 2 years old on   May 7. She had intestinal failure at birth and required tube feeding, but her parents brought her to Omaha in November for a small-bowel transplant. She may go home soon.
 Besides world-class medical care, patients and families receive what Mamdani calls a full range of personal care – local transportation, translation, special meals and help with financial transactions and sightseeing.
 Jana’s family was introduced to local Muslims and has worshipped at their mosque. A Presbyterian minister from New Zealand was hooked up with a church in Bellevue while his child was here.
 Mamdani, 63, a former businessman, is a native of Tanzania who was living in Atlanta when he brought his wife to Omaha in 1998 for cancer treatment. She died a year later, but he was so impressed with the skill and compassion in Omaha that he persuaded med center officials to let him start the international health care program. He later married an Omahan, Marsha Davidson, and plans to stay here — except when traveling, which is often. “I’m hooked on Omaha,” he said. “I love my work and the people here.”