Hospitals foundation launches drive
$1.5 million needed for two medical-imaging machines to replace 13-year-old models
At 62, Steve Palen is grateful he is still alive and enjoying the things that matter.
“My wife and I, we’re both retired now and we have kids, six grandkids, and we spend so much time with them and it’s really a blessing to be able to do that,” said Palen, who had cancerous tumours on his liver, the result of hepatitis C.
Palen, speaking Tuesday at a Victoria Hospitals Foundation event, credits Dr. Paul Sobkin and the interventional angiography system used to treat him. The equipment allows doctors to see inside blood vessels and internal organs so they can perform procedures.
“When I first met him, I didn’t notice the halo and wings,” Palen joked. “Thanks to Dr. Sobkin and these amazing medical-imaging machines, I’m here, and I really like that part.”
The Victoria Hospitals Foundation launched its campaign Tuesday to raise $1.5 million for two new machines. The two at Royal Jubilee and Victoria General are the only ones on Vancouver Island, and both are past their prime at 13 years old.
“They’re workhorses — they’re in use day in, day out,” said Sobkin, Island Health’s head of angiography and interventional radiography. “There’s a good chance that someone you know is going to need our machines in the future.”
The machines can be used to perform more than 60 procedures, he said, including removing blood clots, stabilizing spinal fractures caused by osteoporosis, treating uterine fibroids to avoid hysterectomies, and opening up blocked Fallopian tubes.
In Palen’s case, the system was used to pinpoint the arteries connected to his cancerous tumours. Chemotherapy was then used to cut off the tumours’ blood supply. It was also used to inject alcohol into the tumours.
Palen’s cancer, diagnosed in 2007, was kept under control long enough for him to receive a liver transplant in 2012.
Before that all happened, Palen said he realized his condition could be fatal.
“We put a down payment on a condo that was being built and we weren’t sure I was going to make it,” he said. “My wife Liz and I, we didn’t really speak about it, but there was a strong possibility.”
A combined 10 to 12 procedures are done each day with the systems at the two hospitals — more than 2,500 a year. They consist of a patient table in a unit with an X-ray machine, computer and display screens that allow images to be watched right away.
“Then we’re able to watch what we’re doing in real time as we manipulate our catheters and wires and tubes inside the patient,” Sobkin said.
New equipment would bring improvements — such as allowing integration with other types of medical images, such as MRIs — and would mean about 60 per cent less radiation exposure for patients and caregivers, he said.
“These machines are going to allow us to see smaller and smaller blood vessels, to perform more advanced procedures, even things that we currently aren’t able to do,” Sobkin said.
“We’re going to be able to work with increased confidence, increased accuracy and that’s going to be a benefit to the patient.”
Donations will be matched by an anonymous donor up to a total of $750,000. To support the campaign, go to victoriahf.ca, call 250-519-1750 or mail a donation to Wilson Block, 1952 Bay St., Victoria, V8R 1J8.