Arnella C. Hennig, MD - Team Award

09 Jul 2017

          

Arnella Hennig, MD, was very much a part of a team for which she submitted a Team Award — so The Star Team has included her.

On Christmas Day, a patient in the ICU made a remarkable recovery and resumed his palliative  radiation therapy to his spine. Unfortunately, his treatment linear accelerator machine was down. The sequence of events keeping treatment on schedule was incredibly executed by the Radiation Oncology staff, and by the same team including the department manager, radiation therapists and physicists. The approach was seamless, directed by Carrie McLaughlin. Kyle Bryson stepped up to explain the needed calculations to switch the patient to a second machine. Physics was contacted, Joe Ying offered to come from Portland at 7:30 a.m., in case his colleague did not arrive from out of state, on time, to complete the calculations as necessary. Lichung Ku, Head of our Physics Department, reached Brian Casto, who completed calculations that evening. Yes, the treatment on the second machine could be done! Both Kyle and Russel Vetter were present, bright and early to warm it up, to contact transportation and treat the patient. Prep occurred on Christmas Day, the patient was treated the day after. Dr. Hennig shared that she “cannot express my gratitude to the involved staff above, to allow me to provide the best medical care for our patients with appropriate treatment, in a timely fashion and given with kindness.” It truly takes a team to provide such excellent services, especially when there are unexpected events.