As a nurse navigator helping people get through cancer treatment, Denise develops deep relationships with patients and their families. She provides profound care for their minds, bodies, and spirits; she moves heaven and earth to honor her patients’ wishes.
In 2022, one of her patients was going into hospice with prostate cancer. He told Denise he wasn’t ready to leave his family, but there were no more treatments available. At the same time, Denise heard about a brand-new, experimental drug that might buy this patient time. She was determined to get the medication for him, though it had strict limitations. She collaborated with his physician, with the local blood bank and with other hospitals. She came up against roadblock after roadblock, but she didn’t give up, and finally she figured out a way for him to get the medication. As a result, this patient lived more than a year longer than he expected to—a year together with his family—and has only recently re-entered hospice.
Denise excels at explaining everything patients need to know about their treatment with humor, precision, and grace. She designed many of City of Hope’s patient education materials, and her favorite project is her new-patient chemotherapy class. Naturally, people arrive for this orientation tense, scared and withdrawn. But as the class goes on, inevitably there’s laughter and a palpable sense of relief. It’s not that Denise sugar-coats the situation, but she talks with patients freely, in a way that diffuses tension and allows patients to feel what they need to feel.
Denise’s genius is seeing each patient as a whole, and her dedication to each person seems like it allows her to work magic. Recently, one of her patients was prescribed a drug that cost $3500 a month. He couldn’t afford it. Denise made call after call, found several grants, which lowered the cost to $26 a month. Her connection with her patients is genuine, rooted in her expertise, and literally life-sustaining.