MORGAN HILL
– Hidden behind a long-closed hospital sits a little-known South
Valley medical treasure: Saint Louise Cancer Care Center.
Mike Crocker, principal of Morgan Hill’s Jackson Elementary
School and a pancreatic cancer survivor, knows from harrowing
personal experience how valuable it is.
MORGAN HILL – Hidden behind a long-closed hospital sits a little-known South Valley medical treasure: Saint Louise Cancer Care Center.
Mike Crocker, principal of Morgan Hill’s Jackson Elementary School and a pancreatic cancer survivor, knows from harrowing personal experience how valuable it is.
“How ironic that I could stay right here in little ol’ Morgan Hill and get the best treatment in the country,” Crocker said of the radiation therapy he received at the cancer care center. “It was top-flight, top-shelf care.”
It must have been, because Crocker has successfully battled pancreatic cancer – which usually kills its victims within three to six months of diagnosis – since April 2001.
The facility, located at 18511 Mission View Drive in Morgan Hill, was opened in April 1991 by Joseph Kraut Sr., M.D., and Thomas Barclay, M.D. It offers radiation therapy to cancer patients from South Valley and beyond.
“I’d say 25 percent of our patients are from south San Jose, 25 percent are from Morgan Hill, 25 percent are from Gilroy, and the rest are from Hollister and other areas, including Los Banos and the Monterey peninsula,” Kraut said.
The clinic treats many Kaiser patients – Kraut estimates that 45 to 55 percent of its patients are Kaiser members.
A typical radiation treatment course spans five weeks, and patients receive radiation five days a week.
Because of the frequency of the treatments, Kraut believes it’s important that patients have as short a commute as possible, referring to the misery inflicted on patients from traffic and symptoms related to treatment.
Teamwork and loving care
Former patients speak fondly of the clinic’s staff. Crocker, 55, who received a month of radiation in July 2001 following surgery on June 7, 2001, missed his daily visits with the clinic staff after his radiation therapy ended.
“They were just so reaffirming and upbeat. They made the difference,” Crocker said. “I miss having them on my team.”
Laura Guido, a Morgan Hill resident and a breast cancer survivor, agrees.
“Those (radiation technicians) are incredible,” Guido said. “They’re easy-going and reassuring.”
Guido, 42, was diagnosed with breast cancer in October 2002 and underwent a lumpectomy followed by 33 radiation treatments. She scheduled her radiation appointments for the first thing in the morning before she went to work as manager of cardiopulmonary services at Saint Louise Regional Hospital. She got to know her fellow patients and clinic staff during her daily contact with them.
“It’s kind of like a support group,” Guido said of the clinic. “You see the same people, you get to know everybody. You get to know their successes.
“I miss them. It was my morning routine.”
One of the people Guido met during her treatment is a fellow breast cancer survivor, Linda McGinnis.
McGinnis, 59, of Gilroy, underwent a lumpectomy and a sentinal node biopsy, which revealed the cancer had not reached her lymph nodes, on Sept. 26, 2002.
Her subsequent radiation treatment was similar to Guido’s and scheduled at nearly the same time, and the two women became good friends. They now make time to get together for massages and other pampering activities.
Radiation therapy didn’t affect McGinnis’ funny bone.
“I think a sense of humor is absolutely imperative. That will hold me up when everything else fails me,” she said.
She nicknamed Dr. Kraut, who explained in great detail the technology of radiation therapy, Dr. Zapper.
Dr. Barclay, who drew lines on her breast to show where the radiation beams should be aimed, became Dr. Mapper. Her oncologist, a snappy dresser, was dubbed Dr. Dapper, and her anesthesiologist was Dr. Whapper.
“It was just delightful how (the staff) got into it,” McGinnis said.
Kraut was not surprised to hear how highly the clinic’s patients speak of his staff.
“All of our techs are certified by state and national boards,” he said. “But part of their training is to be upbeat and provide individualized, loving care.
“They’re the backbone of the department.”
Zapping cancer cells
The heart of the Saint Louise Cancer Care Center is its linear accelerator, contained in a large shielded room.
Electricity runs through a wire, heating it and causing electrons to boil off.
“It’s just like catching a wave at Santa Cruz,” Kraut said of the way electrons gain speed.
After the electrons pick up enough speed, they hit a target – made of a heavy metal, usually gold – and are ionized. The resulting beam of radiation is fabricated to each patient’s individual specification, Kraut said.
Each patient has three or four fields where the radiation is aimed. The fields are marked with a small tattoo the size of a freckle.
Radiation works because cancer cells are less able than normal tissue to recover from the injury the radiation causes.
“Normal and cancer tissue are affected by radiation,” Kraut said. “Cancer cells cannot repair themselves from the insult of radiation. Normal cells have a better blood supply and better capacity to repair themselves – up to a point.”
That means radiation oncologists aim to give patients the maximum amount of radiation normal cells can tolerate. Radiation to each site takes less than a minute, and a patient is typically in the treatment room for less than 10 minutes, he said.
The clinic’s start
Kraut and Barclay were medical directors of radiotherapy for 26 years at O’Connor Hospital in San Jose.
When they learned in 1988 that the Daughters of Charity planned to open a hospital in Morgan Hill, they suggested the new hospital should include a radiotherapy facility.
The DOC didn’t plan to include a radiation treatment center in the hospital, but offered to share the cost of a study to determine if a clinic was feasible.
When the study showed promise for such a facility, Kraut and Barclay accepted the DOC’s challenge to run it. They leased the building site from the Daughters of Charity and designed the cancer care center to blend seamlessly with Saint Louise Hospital right next door.
The cancer care center opened shortly after the hospital did, and the doctors built a successful practice.
In 1999, the doctors were considering retirement and looking for physicians to take over the clinic.
“Dr. Barclay and I have been trying to retire,” Kraut said. “(In 1999) we had five to eight people interested in taking over the practice.”
But then Catholic Healthcare West, which had acquired Saint Louise Hospital from the DOC, dropped a bombshell: CHW announced plans to close the Morgan Hill hospital and move its services to its newly purchased South Valley Hospital in Gilroy, which was later renamed Saint Louise Regional Hospital.
Suddenly, no one was interested in acquiring the free-standing radiation therapy clinic.
Meanwhile, Kraut and Barclay’s ground lease offered them first right of refusal in the case of a sale, so when CHW put the hospital on the market, they had two weeks to obtain a second mortgage to purchase the land on which their building sat.
For now, Kraut and Barclay alternate two-week shifts working at the cancer care center.
Kraut, who was a general practice physician in Morgan Hill from 1962 to 1967, decided to study radiation oncology in 1967 and has been treating cancer patients ever since. He knows that most radiation therapy centers are not in attractive, calming locations.
“Most (radiation clinics) are in basements because of the shielding requirements,” Kraut said.
He and Barclay wanted this facility to be different. With its lushly landscaped atrium and sunny skylights, they achieved that goal.
“It was designed to be receptive to people,” Kraut said.
Crocker appreciated the effort – and successful results – during his radiation treatment.
“When they designed this, they decided to build something where people can be comfortable,” Crocker said, adding that the beautiful surroundings are especially helpful “when you’re sitting there waiting to go and get your insides fried.”
Details: Saint Louise Cancer Care Center, 18511 Mission View Drive, Morgan Hill, 778-9104.
