Doctor dies from cancer spread by device she fought to ban
She’s being called a “warrior” in civilian clothes, someone whose actions to prevent other women from having a similar fate have saved untold numbers of lives.
But sadly, the life of Dr. Amy Reed — an anesthesiologist who, with her husband, spearheaded the fight against power morcellators — couldn’t be saved. The 44-year-old mother of six passed away at her home in Pennsylvania last week from cancer.
Dr. Reed and her husband, surgeon Dr. Hooman Noorchashm, had been fighting the FDA, hospital administrators and the medical-device industry for close to four years. They hoped for an outright ban on this device, one that can instantaneously spread a deadly cancer throughout a woman’s body.
And while the couple’s actions alerted women around the world to the risk and actually resulted in some changes, shockingly, some doctors are still using morcellators — and still telling patients how very rare what happen to Dr. Reed is.
But the tragic truth is, it happens a lot more often than they’ve led us to believe.
Morcellation was introduced in the mid ’90s as the “better” way to have certain surgeries, such as hysterectomies. The device, which looks like a giant glue gun with spinning blades, literally chops up the uterus or fibroid tumors, allowing for removal through a tiny incision and a shorter hospital stay.
But that convenience can also turn into a death sentence.
We’ve been following Dr. Reed’s story and warning you about the very real risks involved in surgery using power morcellators for several years now.
In 2013 Dr. Reed underwent a surgical procedure to have what she thought at the time would be the removal of some benign tumors. She found out afterward that her physician had used a morcellator during the surgery. And when the lab results came back positive for cancer, Dr. Reed knew immediately what that meant.
That hidden tumor had been sliced up inside of her, sending cancer cells flying throughout her body, and giving her immediate stage 4 cancer.
And when Dr. Reed and her husband put two and two together, they realized that morcellators were jeopardizing the lives of up to 100,000 women every year. So, they set out to warn others and get officials, including those at the FDA, to step in.
But incredibly, they were told by administrators at Brigham & Woman’s Hospital (where the procedure was done) that her case was a rare occurrence, as unusual as being struck by lightning.
As proof, it was said that Dr. Reed’s report to the FDA was the very first time the agency had received any notice linking morcellators with the spread of a cancer.
What the hospital didn’t tell the couple, however, was the fact that another patient was currently in Brigham suffering from a deadly cancer for the exact same reason.
And once Dr. Reed’s story got out, hundreds of similar accounts flooded into the FDA. Dr. Noorchashm’s research also uncovered that every day two to five women in the U.S. will have “a deadly cancer spread” by morcellation surgery.
During the pair’s campaign to have the devices taken off the market, other physicians told them to “tone it down,” and that their behavior wasn’t professional for doctors.
Also, during a visit to Brigham last year for a procedure, Dr. Reed and her husband had their bags inspected and were “escorted” by guards for “security reasons.” Unbelievable!
There’s no doubt that their actions have saved lives, causing the FDA to issue an advisory three years ago saying that morcellators should not be used for most hysterectomies or fibroid surgeries. And the GAO did an investigation, putting out a report in February condemning the FDA’s “failure” to warn women. One company, Johnson & Johnson, went so far as to take its morcellation device off of the market.
But many doctors continue to use them, some calling Dr. Reed’s actions nothing but a “publicity stunt.”
That’s why it’s now up to us to warn as many women as we can about this danger.
Do it for others, and to pay tribute to the memory of Dr. Amy Reed.
“Philly patient-safety advocate, physician Amy Reed, dies at 44” Marie McCullough, May 25, 2017, philly.com
