President and CEO, Fox Chase Cancer Center
Executive Vice President for Cancer Services – Temple University Health System
Senior Associate Dean, Clinical Cancer Research – Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University
| Urology |
In 2006, at age 51, David Juall was a healthy, active attorney, and a pilot, who enjoyed traveling and outdoor fun. During a court proceeding in Bucks County, he had a medical emergency and was taken to a local community hospital.
When he thinks back on October 28, 2013, Jim Tetzlaff realizes it would have been easy to ignore what happened and not give it another thought. “I’m a man – we have a tendency to ignore things that have to do with our health,” says Jim, who was 75 at the time. On that day, after one of his grandson’s football games, Jim went to the bathroom and saw blood in his urine. “It was upsetting, but I didn’t have any other symptoms so I thought it had to be a fluke,” recalls the former medical equipment salesman.
Darnell Washington had severe back pain in 2011 and ended up at a local hospital in Philadelphia. Tests conducted detected a renal hemorrhage caused by tumors around both of his kidneys. After X-rays and an MRI, an oncologist at the hospital said the tumors were cancerous and that his only option was to have both kidneys removed. Darnell was only 52 years old and would spend the rest of his life on dialysis. He decided to seek a second opinion with Dr. Robert Uzzo at Fox Chase Cancer Center. Dr. Uzzo said the imaging tests were poor and that he couldn’t make a firm diagnosis based on those tests, so he ordered an extensive round of testing that included outpatient biopsies of Darnell's kidney masses. When both tests came back benign, Darnell was beyond thrilled to know he did not have cancer after all. With regular monitoring, Darnell can live a dialysis-free life. "If it weren’t for Dr. Uzzo and his knowledge of these things, I would not have the quality of life I have today," he said. "From the beginning, it was such a good experience for me at Fox Chase. Everyone was so nice and understanding. They made it as easy as possible on me."
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