Faith, loved ones, and a multidisciplinary care team all played a role in successfully treating an aggressive type of breast cancer
Devout Christian. Supportive wife and mother. Compassionate community leader. Loving sister and daughter. Nonprofit founder and executive. These are just a few of the myriad roles Brenda Atkins Lockley has inhabited throughout her lifetime. She never imagined that breast cancer survivor and activist would be added to the list.
During the summer of 2021, in the first few weeks after Dunlap Family Outpatient Center opened on the main campus of St. Clair Health, a 45-year-old woman was referred to Mark A. Cedar, D.O., Chief of Gastroenterology and Director of the GI Lab at St. Clair Hospital. “At first I was happy to see someone who met the new screening age criteria (down from 50) for colorectal cancer exams coming in to see me. But there was a reason: a small change in bowel habits. Shannon presented with no weight loss and no abdominal pain and her labs showed iron deficiency anemia—which is not uncommon for a woman her age,” Dr. Cedar says.
Walking from Munhall, where Bob Bodnar grew up, to Scott Township, where he now lives, covers just over half of a full marathon. Google Maps tells you that charting that course would take almost five hours out of your day. Upon being told this, Bob laughs.
“I was never a fast runner, just a determined one. I was never concerned with my place in a race or my finishing time. My best marathon was 4 hours and 51 minutes—but I never stopped. My goal was always to finish.” Starting in 1990, Bodnar was a runner. He caught the fitness bug following his divorce, seeking to channel his energy into something positive. After five years of lifting weights and dabbling in a 5k here and a 10k there, Bodnar knew there was more he could do.
Tom Ferrante, 67, of Bethel Park, and his best friend, John, are former co-workers and golf buddies, with a solid, comfortable friendship that has lasted 40-plus years. When Ferrante learned earlier this year that he had prostate cancer, he turned to John, who had been successfully treated for the exact same type of prostate cancer not long ago. John provided advice and support, and most importantly, a referral to an exceptional surgeon: Kevin P. Bordeau, M.D., a board-certified urologist at St. Clair Hospital.
For her 21st birthday, Jaicey Stegena received the gift of a lifetime – a gift that transformed her body and her life. Since the age of 2, Stegena, now 27, of Munhall, lived with a rare condition called neurogenic bladder, which prevented her from being able to urinate naturally. Stegena did not experience the sensation of a full bladder and could not empty her bladder in the normal way. As a result, she had to be catheterized by her parents several times a day, to remove accumulated urine. Remarkably, Stegena learned to do this by herself at the tender age of 5. Her parents, Jay and Winnie Stegena, wanted their daughter, the last of their four children, to have as much normalcy and independence as possible. Stegena was healthy in every other way, and every bit as active as her siblings. Her mother taught her to perform a procedure known as “clean intermittent catheterization,” inserting a catheter into her bladder several times a day. Stegena became proficient at this, but it was never easy, and she endured years – 19 years, to be exact – of frequent urinary tract infections and prolonged courses of antibiotics.
Henry Barr, 77, was struggling through the physical therapy sessions that were part of his rehabilitation following a series of complicated leg surgeries. He was not progressing as expected and found himself becoming breathless as he performed the prescribed exercises. “I was short of breath, and I assumed that this was a normal aspect of the intense therapy. I thought it would start to improve as my therapy progressed, but instead it got worse. I thought there might be something wrong with my lungs, so I made an appointment to see a pulmonologist. He found that my lungs were healthy and recommended that I see a cardiologist.”
Michael “Mike” Bayens has sparred with Roberto Duran and Sugar Ray Leonard, and he will never forget the power and speed that these two formidable athletes possessed. Bayens, of Dormont, is a former amateur boxer who fought in the Golden Gloves in 2002 and once won a match in 32 seconds. He is also a boxing coach for the Pittsburgh Boxing Club, the founder of the Brookline Boxing Club, and well known among local boxing fans. He loves boxing, has expert knowledge of it, and possesses a rather surprising view of it. “Boxing is an art form — it’s the purest form of the martial arts. It’s actually human chess at its finest. It isn’t just about throwing punches; it’s a problem-solving sport and a thinking man’s game, just as chess is. In boxing and in chess, you have to study your opponent and calculate every move. It’s one-on-one competition.”
For Tom Sinton, 45, of South Fayette, the diagnosis of rectal cancer came as a complete surprise. A software developer, Virginia Tech graduate and husband of 19 years to Amanda and the father of three (Nate, 15; Emily, 14; and Luke, 12), Sinton was living a fulfilling life, with work he enjoyed and a thriving family. His cancer journey began with subtle changes in his bowel habits, in the spring of 2019. “It was just a change in frequency, not a big deal at all,” he recalls. “Then I saw blood in August. I had a colonoscopy which revealed a tumor in my colon.”
Christopher Babirad, 49, is a strong and athletic man who has served as a Pennsylvania State Trooper for 21 years. A former college football star at Washington and Jefferson College and a father of three (Ryan, 26; Alex 23; and Noah, 18), Babirad lives in McDonald. He is attentive to his health and fitness, so it was a bit out of character for him when he delayed telling his primary care physician, Kamlesh B. Gosai, M.D., that he was passing blood with bowel movements. “At first it was just occasionally, but it became more consistent,” he recalls. “I was worried: I knew it might mean cancer, but I kept looking for other explanations. I did a lot of Internet research – maybe it’s this condition or that one. It was nearly a year before I finally told Dr. Gosai. His physician assistant ordered a colonoscopy and when I woke up in recovery they told me I had a mass the size of a lemon right at the bottom of my colon. The gastroenterologist, Nicholas A. Bellicini, D.O., said it’s most likely cancer and then the pathology confirmed that. This happened last year on Christmas Eve.”
An alternative way of treating large blood clots in the chest is making it possible for patients to avoid the ordeal of open heart surgery. At St. Clair, Andy C. Kiser, M.D., FACS, FACC, FCCP, Chief of Cardiac Surgery, uses a sophisticated device called an AngioVac to safely remove not only blood clots, but also tumors and infectious material from the heart and blood vessels without major surgery. The minimally invasive new procedure, called aspiration thrombectomy, is an important advance in the treatment of deep vein thrombosis (DVT), a serious condition in which blood clots form in the deep veins of the legs and pelvis. A clot can become free and travel through the blood vessels to the lungs, where it is known as a pulmonary embolism, a potentially life-threatening situation.