A Routine Visit To Dentist Saves A Girl's Life

Journee Woodard, an 11-year-old girl who visited the dentist, was diagnosed of tumour in her abdomen. Journee visited her dentist, Dr Michael Chandler, and hygentist Rachel Stroble on Wednesday, Jan 8, 2015, as a part of her routine dental check-up and cleaning.

Chandler and Stroble were suspicious about Woodard’s yellowish eyes which appeared abnormal to them. The doctors informed Woodard’s mum about her abnormally yellowish eyes. Woodard’s parents took her to the doctor where a blood tests and an ultrasound were performed. The abnormalities in the tests led to CAT scan and MRI. The scans reportedly revealed a mass of tissues on her liver and pancreas, reports youcaring.com.

Woodard was then admitted to the University of Oklahoma Children’s Hospital on Thursday, Feb 5, 2015, for a surgery the following day. She underwent a surgery for more than nine hours for the removal of the grapefruit-size mass of tumorous tissues on her liver and pancreas. The doctors had to perform a “Whipple procedure” to remove the cancerous tissues.

The Whipple procedure is generally performed to remove cancer in the pancreas. The goal of the Whipple procedure is to remove the head region of the pancreas where the tumours usually occur. Since the pancreas are much integrated to the other organs in the stomach, the doctors would have to remove the gall bladder, end of the bile duct, first part of the small intestine called the duodenum and in rare cases a small part of the stomach.

The intestine, bile duct and the pancreas must be reconnected in the reconstruction phase of the surgery. Whipple procedure is a difficult process for both the surgeon and the patient. Chandler said that he felt bad that he couldn’t do anything to help the little girl, he also added that Woodard’s mother has been grateful to him and even posted about it on the Internet. Woodard is now discharged from the hospital and reportedly gaining her strength back.

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