MEMPHIS, Tenn. — In 2021, a $28 million investment into the oncology program at Regional One Health, the only level 1 trauma center in a 150-mile radius from Memphis, advanced the hospital's cancer treatment technology and has helped more than 40,000 patients within the last three years.
Robert Mayweather is one of the patients helped by this advancement. The 58-year-old almost lost his life three years ago.
"I started having a lot of gastric disturbances. My GI doctor thought that I may have caught some type of bug traveling to the tropics. When he went in to do the colonoscopy, he found a tumor blocking my colon and rushed me to the hospital for emergency surgery," Mayweather said. "Afterwards, they told me they didn't think I had three months to live. One doctor came in and put his fist on the bed and said, 'Well, you've got metastatic colon cancer that has metastasized to your liver and lungs.'"
With advanced stage IV colon cancer, Mayweather's new normal was chemotherapy and a colonoscopy bag that three surgeons wanted no part in removing.
After two years, his oncologist, Dr. Ramakrishna Battini at the West Cancer Center and Research Institute, referred him to Dr. David Shibata, the executive director of Regional One Health's cancer program.
"What I saw on paper for him made sense, but then I didn't associate that quality initially with Regional One," Mayweather said. "Really, I always perceived it as the Trauma Center. I never knew anything about the oncology care."
Dr. Shibata said healthcare, particularly cancer outcomes, in the Mississippi Delta region are among the worst in the nation.
U.S. News Health's notorious annual "Best Hospitals for Cancer" rankings put University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center at number one. Vanderbilt University Medical Center's score of 61.7 out of 100 earned the 40th spot and was the only Mid-South hospital to make the top 50.
Regional One didn't have enough cancer patients to receive a rating, but the report on colon cancer surgery showed high scores for nurse staffing, better than average for keeping patients who received chemotherapy from going to the emergency room and average for preventing unplanned visits after a patient had a colonoscopy.
"Just within the past two years, the growth of the cancer care of this institution has grown dramatically. Lots of great investments, including cutting edge operating room suites, brand new dedicated oncology inpatient units, also, a fully renovated full serviced outpatient cancer unit as well," Dr. Shibata said.
It had everything needed for Dr. Shibata to successfully complete Mayweather's nine-hour complex surgery last September.
"He removed the bag. He fixed a mucous fistula. I had an opening in my stomach that just looked like a big round hole where you could see intestines, and I would have to cover it with a patch. I had a hernia, and he fixed all of it," Mayweather said.
Shibata said the surgery was not just to battle Mayweather's cancer, but to try and maximize his quality of life.
"It's changed my life for the better," Mayweather said.
Mayweather has Regional One to thank.
"If right now, if MD Anderson called and said, 'Hey, come down, let us take a look at you,' I wouldn't have a reason to go. I would not trade the care I got at Regional One," Mayweather said.
Dr. Shibata is the chair of the surgery department at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. Regional One's affiliation with the university streamlines the process for cancer research and clinical trials. In fact, clinical trials to medically and surgically treat Ocular Melanoma that has spread to the liver are only being offered at three health centers in America, and Regional One Health is one of them.