Pancreas patient Tim Crow, with his wife Lea, stand before the “wall of hope” at Methodist hospital.
Diners at a few Bishop Arts restaurants — Bolsa, Boulevardier, Gloria’s and Eno’s — will be given purple napkins tonight and Friday. Purple symbolizes pancreatic cancer awareness, and the restaurants are pitching in to educate the community about treatment options on behalf of Methodist hospital.
Methodist Dallas Medical Center in Oak Cliff is the first hospital in the nation to receive a pancreatic surgery certification by the Joint Commission, and the first hospital in Texas to receive a pancreatic cancer certification. To earn the certification, the hospital had to show that patients had positive outcomes and better quality of life after treatment.
Methodist surgeons use robotics to perform the most common form of treatment for pancreatic cancer, a surgery known as the Whipple procedure. Using minimally invasive robotics allows for quicker recovery time so that patients can enter chemotherapy and other post-surgery treatment sooner.
Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest forms of cancer; more than 70 percent of patients die within the first year of diagnosis, according to pancan.org. Fewer than 6 percent survive five years after diagnosis.
Methodist wants the community to know that better treatment options are available.
This week, the hospital invited patients, physicians, nurses, and loved ones to tie purple ribbons onto a “wall of hope,” which will be up through Saturday. Anyone who would like to type a message of hope for pancreas patients may do so here, and a hospital volunteer will tie a purple ribbon for you.
