LIHUE — Ken and Betsy Greenbaum spearheaded the Greenbaum Community Challenge for their 60th wedding anniversary to raise funds for a blood irradiator at Wilcox Memorial Hospital.
The irradiator cost $350,000 and was paid for through community contributions sparked by the Greenbaums over a three-month period.
“This is a great step forward for Wilcox Hospital,” said Jen Chahanovich, Wilcox Medical Center CEO, who watched the dedication of the new blood irradiator via telemedicine technology. “We’ve never had one, and this provides patients a great step forward in being able to stay at home for medical care.”
The Thursday dedication and blessing was done through video because the space housing the irradiator was too small to
accommodate the crowd of about a hundred people, including Wilcox Hospital board members and contributors to the new technology. It also demonstrated the capability of telemedicine, an area that Wilcox Hospital is looking to expand through its Giving program.
The need for the blood irradiator was made apparent when Wilcox encountered a Trauma 1 incident that required infusion patients to forego their irradiated blood to care for the needs of the trauma case.
Irradiated blood is blood that has been treated with radiation to prevent transfusion-associated graft-versus host diseases, which is usually fatal, said Dr. Jeffrey Cronk, who participated in the dedication. Those who are susceptible to this blood disease are considered immunocompromised patients being treated for cancer, or who have given birth to a baby and living with certain blood conditions. Irradiated blood also has a short shelf life which prevents it from being banked.
“This means a lot to patients here,” Chahanovich said. “Previous to the machine, Dr. Cronk would let us know of his needs. This was sent over to Oahu where blood would take a taxi to the Kapiolani Medical Center for treatment. It was then taken by taxi to the airport for transport here — a process that took between 24 to 48 hours. With the blood irradiator here, that has been improved to within minutes of Dr. Cronk’s need.”
Previously, for initial leukemia therapy, many Wilcox patients had to travel to Oahu for a 20- to 30-day stay to receive the required continuous infusion of irradiated blood products. Having the blood irradiation technology on-island reduces the number of trips patients need to make off-island, keeping them home with family, friends and familiar surroundings while dealing with difficult diagnosis.
The new machine, based on X-ray technology, represents the best in the field, Cronk said.
“It has a life of more than 10 years and is different from the machines based on cobalt for treatment,” he said. “It has a low level of maintenance compared with machines using other technology.”
Chahanovich also pointed to the telemedicine technology which was used to stream the blessing live to the audience gathered in the hospital’s conference rooms. She hopes to expand this technology being headed by Dr. Amy Corliss to eventually go beyond the hospital’s walls and one day, into patients’ homes to further simplify and enhance medical treatment.
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
