This is a coronavirus cancer story that made us sad and angry.
Reilly Starr, 41, is fighting stage 4 metastatic breast cancer. She lives in New York and, with the coronavirus outbreak spreading, she quickly made plans to seek treatment in Richmond, Virginia, where she has family.
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Starr, who was diagnosed in January of 2019 with HER2-positive breast cancer that is also hormone-negative, now faced a choice: “I could advocate on behalf of the metastatic breast cancer community — or quietly resolve my individual case.”
She took to Facebook: "Be aware. VCU Massey Cancer Center has rejected me as a new patient because I'm from a high-risk COVID-19,” she wrote. “As a metastatic breast cancer patient, I require continuous treatment to keep me alive. I am currently vacating Manhattan as a precautionary step to reduce the risk of my family acquiring COVID-19. I am appalled."
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The fallout was swift. The Richmond Times-Dispatch picked up her story as outrage spiked on social media. The following day, the hospital offered Starr an apology and a compromise: a two-week quarantine period before starting treatment.
"I don't have two weeks,” says Starr, who was diagnosed with he explained. “It really comes down to life or death. If I don't get treatment on a regular schedule, my cancer can progress."
“Safety is Our No. 1 Priority”
In a statement, VCU Health spokeswoman Laura Rossacher said the hospital is screening all transfer patients for COVID-19 risk factors, but will continue to accept any patient regardless of their COVID-19 test result.
The hospital announced Wednesday that it is also canceling most elective surgeries and is trying to limit face-to-face patient visits in an effort to prevent the virus from spreading. "The way we deliver care is changing to best serve all of our patients during COVID-19 while offering a safe environment for providing and receiving care," Rossacher wrote. "The safety of everyone is our No. 1 priority."
Dr. Elizabeth Comen, a medical oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and advisor to SurvivorNet, says there are also several drugs that have improved overall survival for patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer.
Starr believes her experience pressed leaders at VCU Health to have important conversations about patient care during a global pandemic. "People have not been through something like this crisis before," she told the Richmond Times-Dispatch. "A lot of new decisions are having to take place."
A Crushing Feeling
"I love going to the hospital,” says Starr, who has been a patient at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. “I feel like I'm living longer because of my treatment," she said. "If you deny me the hospital it's a crushing feeling. The metastatic breast cancer community understands the emotional side of this; no one else can begin to understand the stress.”
Ultimately, Starr insists, her message about policy, not emotion: “Bottom line, hospitals need to have a crisis communication plan in place."
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With no symptoms and a work-from-home job, Starr says she’s “a happy homebody” and unlikely to have been exposed to the coronavirus in New York.
Today, Starr, her husband, and young son, almost 2, are leaving their home there and headed to Richmond.
But when she arrives, she’ll wait until April 10th to see an oncologist.
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