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| SVH Prosthetics Fitter Honored by Amoena |
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| Beth Bacon Receives Amoena Recognition |
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Sebasticook Valley Hospital President and CEO John C. “Jack” May has announced that Elizabeth “Beth” Bacon, Certified Prosthetics Fitter at the hospital and at five other locations throughout the state, has been named by the Amoena company as their national “Fitter of the Month for September 2006”.
Amoena supplies a wide range of prosthetics productssupplies and hosts www.thebreastcancersite.com. This past spring Beth Bacon was also nominated by Sebasticook Valley Hospital for the Maine Hospital Association Caregiver of the Year Award. The following feature article written for the monthly Amoena newsletter is currently posted on their internet site.
Fitter of the Month September 2006: Beth Bacon
Elizabeth "Beth" Bacon was born and raised in Houlton, Maine. Her mother is a nurse, but Beth felt she was as far removed from that occupation as you could get, because she was petrified by the sight of her own blood. She thought she would probably end up being a school teacher. By the time she entered her early 20s, Beth realized she really did want to enter the medical profession because she felt compelled to do work that helped people. Her path to that goal was to become an X-ray technician.
Beth works at the Sebasticook Valley Hospital. Patients coming to the hospital’s Women's Health Center can look forward to having Beth provide many of the services the center offers. She routinely performs mammograms, diagnostic bone density screenings, and stereotactic breast biopsies.
But that’s not all by any stretch of the imagination! Sebasticook Valley Hospital entered into the role of providing prosthetic services in 2002. When the original fitter was departing to go back to teaching school, Beth happily stepped in to take her place, and found yet another service she could provide to help the women she cares so much about.
Beth is truly in a rare position, because it’s not uncommon for her to follow a woman from her mammogram through the entire process of biopsy, surgery, and then follow-up care. In fact, when a woman’s mammogram shows an abnormality or suspicious area, she is often the individual who performs the needle localization or stereotactic biopsy. Does Beth feel a bit overwhelmed wearing so many helping hats? Not at all, and as she shares with us, “My work is amazingly rewarding because I can make a difference in so many people’s lives. And believe me, I get a lot back from the women I see. One woman I helped recently sent a letter to the hospital telling them that in the 28 years she’s been a breast cancer survivor, I was the most caring fitter she’d ever gone to – can you imagine how wonderful hearing something like that can be? It not only means I’m doing my job, but I’m actually doing what I really wanted, touching people’s lives in a positive way. This is just what I had hoped to be able to accomplish!”
And accomplish should be Beth’s middle name! Since SVH is a small hospital in the central part of the state, Beth travels to six other hospitals on a rotating basis, visiting one a week to provide fittings. Her travel takes her to Farmington, Ellsworth, Norway, Rockport, Northeast Harbor, and Greenville. Bacon tells us, “I try to have at least five or six appointments each time I visit. Some days it’s as many as nine. I should probably add these are not all new women, some are follow ups.”
Beth has a lot of empathy for the women she sees, not just because she is a health care professional, but because she fully understands what it’s like to have a health scare. “Just last winter I felt a lump in my right breast which hadn’t been there very long. I had a mammogram and the lump showed up. Then I had an ultrasound, and when it didn’t look like it was a cyst, my Ob/Gyn told me I needed to have a needle aspiration. He was able to draw off enough cells to get results, and luckily the results came back negative. I am now being extra vigilant and remembering to do self exams on a regular basis, as well as my regularly scheduled mammograms,” she says.
When asked about women who have particularly touched her, Beth talks about one woman who had surgery over 14 years ago, and no one had ever told her about getting a prosthesis, so she hadn’t been wearing anything for all those years. She also met a woman who started off being completely closed to any suggestions or help. She simply didn’t want to hear anything about what was available. Beth counts her as a close friend now – and the woman has often said how glad she is that she finally began accepting information and got fitted.
So it comes as no surprise that Beth was nominated for the Maine Hospital Association's fifth annual Caregiver of the Year Award. She was honored at a special ceremony at the hospital on June 20th. This statewide award honors a caregiver from an MHA member institution, who, on a daily basis, demonstrates extraordinary commitment to the delivery of care to patients and their families. For these nominees, health care isn't just a job, it's a calling. As SVH President and CEO John C. May states, "Beth provides service to women at some of the most difficult times during their lives. For twelve years, she has shown extraordinary compassion, empathy, and respect to the individuals she has served. Beth sees women at vulnerable times – after discovering a lump in their breast or after having breast cancer surgery and coping with the changes in their lives.”
Beth also helps coordinate the SVH Annual Breast Cancer Awareness Walk that raises funds for free mammograms for those without insurance or the ability to pay for the service. She has volunteered for a wide range of SVH events from capital campaigns, providing free community health screenings, and various fundraising events.
Beth admits there are times when she sobs during the entire drive home. The women she sees often pour their hearts out to her sharing intimate details about their lives, which can be emotionally draining. She wouldn’t have it any other way, but does need a release herself, every now and then. The down times are outweighed by the instances where she knows she has been able to help someone either physically or emotionally, and her days are filled with hugs and smiles.
Beth lives with her husband Parris and their two children.
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| For more information, please contact Sue diRosario, director of marketing and development at SVH at 207-487-5141 ext. 490. |
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August 20, 2008
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