Focusing On Patients

Making Surgery Safer
(continued)

"You cut the misery to the patient by at least two-thirds," adds Goodnight. "You get the same results without bruising the ribs and the muscles. It's a big, big advance for the patient."

Sackett underwent the surgery after a short course of chemotherapy and radiation to kill any cancer cells that might have escaped the throat region. He had his surgery a month later. Four days after the operation he left the hospital. He was able to walk a mile the next day. "I didn't feel any pain, and my coloring came right back," he recalls.

In subsequent check ups, Sackett has been cancer free; the lymph nodes in his stomach were similarly clear. Meanwhile, he has resumed a normal diet, although he eats several small meals a day instead of three large ones. "I can't eat big meals any more, which is probably good, because I can eat like a pig," he says. "My little tubby tummy is gone."

Sackett finally opted to stop working - because of his heart, he says, not cancer - and looks forward to enjoying his retirement healthy and cancer-free.

"I'm lucky I could go to UC Davis Medical Center. The people there have been a magnificent resource for me," says Sackett.

"I wonder what challenge is next for me to overcome?"