Looking Back Boning Up on New Treatments

orthopaedic surgeon, he was tapped to treat Kansas Sen. Frank Capper’s polio-stricken daughter. c.1962 Over the years, Dr. Dickson and colleague Rex Diveley, M.D., VOLUME 5, ISSUE 3, FALL 2006 AN UPDATE FROM SAINT LUKE’S HOSPITAL OF KANSAS CITY built a legendary orthopaedic practice, setting the standard Consulted by colleagues and favored for care in our region. Today, the doctors’ legacy continues: by patients, Saint Luke’s specialists have Patients consistently rate Saint Luke’s orthopaedic specialists provided leading-edge bone and joint No. 1 for treating multiple fractures, bone and joint problems, treatments for more than 80 years. and more. + Below left to right: Drs. Frank Dickson and Rex Diveley—standing fourth and Polio was on the prowl in 1925, when Frank Dickson, M.D., seventh from left—and other Saint Luke’s physicians advise colleagues from joined Saint Luke’s Hospital. As Kansas City’s first England and New Zealand.

Making Up for Lost Time Doctors at Saint Luke’s Mid America Brain and Stroke Institute put seizures to rest

Saint Luke’s transplant surgeons provide a new heart, new kidney—and a new life

Study by researchers at Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute strengthens failing hearts

14 Saint Luke’s Voices Table of Contents

FALL 2006

Don’t Let Seizures “PEOPLE WITH EPILEPSY CAN GET INDEX C OVER WORLD-CLASS TREATMENT RIGHT Limit Your Life HERE IN KANSAS CITY. OUR 2 out of 3 Making Up for Lost Time 4 RESEARCHERS AND DOCTORS ARE Number of people with epilepsy who will For 10 years, Kristy Faircloth’s mix of medications failed INVESTIGATING PROMISING NEW be able to control their seizures with the Cast off myths and learn the truth to stop her seizures. Finally, surgery at Saint Luke’s TREATMENTS ALL THE TIME.” first or second seizure medication they try about effective treatments for epilepsy SEE PAGE 4 Mid America Brain and Stroke Institute put them to rest John MacDonald, Advisory Board member, Saint Luke’s Mid America Brain and Stroke Institute When I was 7, I developed encephalitis, a rare inflammation of the brain that caused a very About 400 FEATURES high fever. High fevers in young children have been linked with seizures, in some cases, and Number of rare heart-kidney transplants performed in the United States since the Double Take 8 my parents and doctor were worried about that. late 1980s Gene Kern was close to death. Then a rare double trans- So for more than five years, our doctor put Saint Luke’s Hospital Leadership SEE PAGE 8 plant gave him a new heart, new kidney—and a new life me on anti-seizure drugs—even though The Right Rev. Barry R. Howe CHAIRMAN SAINT LUKE’S HOSPITAL Call to ACTION 10 I never had a seizure—because he thought Robert H. West PRESIDENT 550,000 SAINT LUKE’S HOSPITAL Number of Americans diagnosed annually Latonia Holoman strengthened her failing heart through a they would prevent epilepsy from develop- G. Richard Hastings CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER with heart failure, the leading cause of study underway at Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute SAINT LUKE’S HOSPITAL ing. That’s a notion most doctors today hospitalization for people older than 65 Mark S. McPhee, M.D. CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER SAINT LUKE’S HOSPITAL SEE PA GE 10 would reject. DEPARTMENTS Saint Luke’s Report Editorial Advisory Board My experience happened more than 50 Candace L. F. McDowell 40 percent New and Noteworthy 2 years ago, and epilepsy treatment has come Mark S. McPhee, M.D. Number of Americans 65 and older who Edward T. Matheny Jr. develop gradual hearing loss Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute welcomes a long way since then. I was lucky. I never Paul W. Nelson, M.D. SEE PAGE 12 new research director David Cohen, M.D.; “shaped beam” had epilepsy. But 2.7 million Americans do. John T. Russell radiation targets tumors better; youngest baby gets John D. Yeast, M.D. cochlear implants at Midwest Ear Institute; and more Corrine D. Everson Source