A Brain Tumor Patient Returns to New Zealand
After Successful Gamma Knife Radiosurgery in Hawaii
HONOLULU (May 30, 2001) – A brain tumor patient returns home to New Zealand on June 1st in good condition after a successful Gamma Knife radiosurgery in Hawaii.
Sixty-six-year-old Gary Frost traveled all the way to Hawaii from New Zealand for
brain surgery because St. Francis Medical Center in Honolulu has a high-tech Gamma Knife
device that saved him from having his scalp and skull cut open to treat his brain tumor.
Frost was the first patient from New Zealand to receive treatment at the Gamma Knife
Center of the Pacific (GKCP) at St. Francis.
He spent only half a day of his two-week trip to Hawaii getting his Gamma Knife radiosurgery. The rest was holiday for him and his wife. Frost left the hospital saying he was "ready to run a marathon." He told the Honolulu Star-Bulletin right after his surgery: "I've never run a marathon and I'm not likely to either. But I feel pretty good. I'll be back to normal by tomorrow."
“The Gamma Knife is not a knife at all, but a radiosurgical device that treats brain
tumors with precisely focused 201 sources of radioactive cobalt-60,” said Dr. Nicholson.
“It is a one-treatment procedure that allows the patient to return to their normal activities
the next day. So Mr. Frost can spend his recovery period on the beach.”
Conventional open-skull brain surgery involves five to seven days of recovery in the hospital with at least one day in the Intensive Care Unit, which is very expensive, Nicholson said. "And if there is any kind of complication with surgery, the patient could be in the hospital for weeks, with rehabilitation and everything."
The Gamma Knife is such a rare and expensive medical device that there’s not a single machine in New Zealand and Australia. But the Auckland resident learned of the Gamma Knife and the Hawaii facility on the Internet. Frost, who has acoustic neuroma, a type of benign brain tumor, was drawn to the GKCP because of the Gamma Knife’s excellent success rate. The success rate of Gamma Knife treatment for acoustic neuroma has been 98% tumor controlled.
More Information:
Hawaii Star Bulletin
http://starbulletin.com/2001/05/25/news/story9.html