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Surgeon offers new approach
Now at Mary Washington Hospital: lung surgery through small incisions
Date published: 9/30/2007
BY JIM HALL
Dr. Timothy Sherwood had sliced and stapled his way through three pulmonary arteries, one pulmonary vein and an airway in Anita Froggatt's chest.
He had separated the upper lobe from the middle lobe of her right lung, and now he was ready to remove the upper lobe.
Sherwood operated on Froggatt on Tuesday at Mary Washington Hospital to help determine why she had been short of breath and coughing.
X-rays and CT scans taken months earlier revealed a white spot in the upper lung. Biopsies and blood tests that followed were inconclusive.
Medications didn't help, and Froggatt's doctors had no answers. The Spotsylvania County resident is 59. She smoked for 20 years but stopped in the 1980s.
Was the spot lung cancer? Or was it something else, perhaps damage done by fungi or bacteria?
Sherwood will eventually have the answers, but first he had to remove the suspect lobe.
A thoracic surgeon, Sherwood arrived at the Fredericksburg hospital this spring. He brought with him from Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore knowledge of small-incision lung surgery.
In the past, surgeons at Mary Washington did lung surgery through 7-inch incisions in the side of the chest. Patients' ribs had to be moved, causing pain and long hospital stays.
Sherwood offered Froggatt something different. He told her he would make three small incisions in her side, insert specially designed tools between the ribs, and remove the lobe.
Sometimes, he said, he had to change his plan in the middle of surgery and open the chest. But usually, the small incisions offered enough room.
Sherwood also promised reduced pain and a shorter hospital stay with this keyhole approach. Froggatt agreed to it. She arrived at the hospital early Tuesday for her surgery.
Preparing to operate
Operating room No. 12 was bright and chilly when the team wheeled Froggatt in. Mark Ivory, a nurse anesthetist, had already started an epidural in her upper back.
Soon he gave her other drugs to paralyze her and block memory and pain. Then he inserted a tube in her throat and took over her breathing.
For the next three hours, the regular beep of the pulse oximeter, combined with the music of Fergie and Bon Jovi, served as backdrop to the surgery.
While Ivory worked, the others--Connie Ramirez, Judy Bowmar, Rebecca Coons and Maureen Brennan--prepared Froggatt.
| The Fredericksburg area's medical community has grown in recent months with the addition of Dr. Timothy Sherwood, a thoracic surgeon, and a host of other specialists and sub-specialists. Among them are:
Drs. Maha Alattar, Sandra Crouse and Amandeep Sangha arrived this summer to serve as inpatient and outpatient neurologists at Mary Washington Hospital. Alattar is also a sleep specialist. She completed a fellowship in sleep disorders at The Cleveland Clinic.
Drs. Brian Mirza and Victor Stelmack arrived this summer to do bariatric, or weight-loss, surgery. Mirza also completed fellowship training at The Cleveland Clinic in minimally invasive surgical procedures.
Drs. Reshma Parab, Leslie Taguba and Francisco Cruz arrived in March to begin an inpatient and outpatient endocrinology practice at the hospital.
Dr. Kay Blanchard arrives this week from Houston to work as the area's first female general surgeon and the first female surgeon to specialize in breast cancer.
Also new are Dr. Rod Flynn, a surgical oncologist; Dr. Avnit Ahuta, a rheumatologist; and Dr. Lawrence Roberts, a trauma surgeon and medical director of the hospital's new trauma service.
--Jim Hall
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Read more stories about Fredericksburg
Date published: 9/30/2007
Most recent reader comments:
His patient's are lucky to have him
(posted by
Katie
, Sep. 30, 2007 1:47 pm)
I care for Dr. Sherwood's patient's postop, and they are by far as lucky as they can get to have him as their surgeon. He is a blessing to this community.
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