LEADING CARE FOR WOMEN

“I’m sorry, Mrs. Cohen. It’s malignant.”

Ellen Cohen leading carefor women By Burke Watson

Emerging from the fog of anesthesia, Ellen Cohen looked around the room in a Montreal hospital to see if the doctor could be speaking to another Mrs. Cohen. He wasn’t. This 20-something wife and mother of two small children had been diagnosed with breast cancer.

After enduring a radical mastectomy, her doctor asked if she had any questions. Only a few hundred, she replied. How long might she expect to live? How was this dramatic change in her body going to affect intimacy with her husband?

“Well, maybe you’d like to speak to my wife,” the doctor told her. She wasn’t a physician and had never had cancer, he acknowledged, “But she’s a woman.”

“I didn’t need a woman to talk to. I needed a young mother, a breast cancer survivor, to talk to,” Cohen told about 200 listeners at The Methodist Hospital’s second annual Leading Care for Women Symposium.

Now a 40-year cancer survivor and a state representative from Houston, Cohen recounted that frightening, frustrating experience during her keynote address at the daylong symposium. The gatherings are organized to provide information about health concerns affecting women, as well as issues that affect both women and men — but which often are diagnosed in women too late, or not at all. Known as an advocate for women’s health issues, as well as public education, air quality and other concerns, Cohen was elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 2006, representing the district that includes the Texas Medical Center, and was re-elected in 2008.

Citing such health threats as heart disease, stroke and diabetes, Cohen urged those attending the symposium to learn all they can and be assertive about getting the care they need. In addition to her remarks and a welcome from Ron G. Girotto, president and CEO of The Methodist Hospital System®, the symposium featured breakout sessions hosted by Methodist physicians and other health professionals on a wide range of topics.

Morning breakout sessions included presentations on heart disease, diabetes and arthritis in women, as well as discussions on cardiovascular surgery, acid reflux and treatment of spinal fractures caused by osteoporosis. After lunch with physicians in the hospital’s Crain Garden, another breakout session covered topics including dermatology, breast cancer care and the Methodist Institute for Technology, Innovation & Education. n