Heather Von St. James has been free of mesothelioma for two and a half years since her radical treatment at a Boston Hospital. Von James believes that her mesothelioma was caused by her being exposed to her father’s work clothes when he worked at Ainsworth-Benning as a construction laborer. Many of the products he worked with contained asbestos. She would often get into his boots and coat to go outside and feed the rabbits.
Von James learned she was pregnant in 2004. She didn’t gain much weight, was short of breath and felt pressure under the left breast but figured this was part of being pregnant. After her daughter was born in 2005, she went back to work part-time but was exhausted. She attributed her exhaustion to being a new mother combined with going back to work. When she returned to full-time work, the pain in her chest was “like a truck was parked on my chest.” Her doctor ordered x-rays and blood work that showed fluid around her left lung.
She was sent to United Hospital in St. Paul where the fluid was drained and a CT scan was done. They found a mass the size of an orange so she had a needle biopsy done and, on November 21, 2005, she was told she had mesothelioma. Her options were 1) to do nothing and live for perhaps 15 months; 2) try radiation and chemotherapy or 3) go to Boston to see Dr. Sugarbaker at Brighams and Women’s Hospital.
She went to Boston and had radical surgery on February 2, 2006. The surgery removed her left lung, several lymph nodes, a rib, half her diaphragm and some of her heart lining. When she returned home in May she started chemotherapy every 3 weeks for 12 weeks. It’s been 2 years since she ended treatment except for periodic scans. So far she has been mesothelioma free.
Dr. David Sugarbaker, who heads the International Mesothelioma Program at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston, said Von St. James is a shining example of the progress he is beginning to see in the fight against a disease that traditionally carried a maximum survival of 12 to 18 months.
Von St. James claims she is cured and that she is a poster child that says there is hope even after such a diagnosis. Dr. Sugarbaker only will say that “right now in this present moment she is disease-free.”
Von St. James has filed a lawsuit against Ainsworth-Benning and others and is waiting for the court to set a trial date.
