Good Shepherd Health Care System | 

11

Compassionate 

The past 15 years of health “bliss” 
quickly came to an abrupt pause when 
she began to feel poorly several days 
running. “Passing out at work and 
being transported to the hospital via 
ambulance was a rude awakening,” 
shared Tara. “I was told simply that 
my potassium was low, given some 
stabilizing medications and was sent 
on my way.” 

Life for Tara became complicated 
as she visited doctor after doctor 
with minimal progress. Better health 
seemed out of reach.

“My new normal was 6 hours of 
potassium transfusions every day.” Tara 
would drive 30 minutes each way to 
Good Shepherd Health Care System 
for daily infusions at the Treatment 
Center. 

“Getting to the point of infusion 
therapy was a temporary fix. I saw 
multiple specialists I was referred to 
from my primary care doctor, including 
gastroenterology and nephrology. 
Additionally, the hospitalists that cared 
for me the two times I was admitted 
conducted many diagnostic tests. All 
paths were at a standstill and the only 
immediate solution was potassium 
infusions and taking potassium orally 
at home.”

“Daily infusions at Good Shepherd’s 
Treatment Center were something 
I looked forward to because of the 
wonderful nurses I got to know and 
share the time with,” stated Tara.  
“One particular nurse, Mazie, is who  
I owe the credit to for the connection  
to Dr. Iacoboni, which I am forever 
grateful for.”

Enter Dr. Iacoboni, the new Oncologist 
that started up Good Shepherd Cancer 
Center in Hermiston six months ago. 
“It is not uncommon in small towns 
where there are only a few medical 
specialists or even internists such 
that rather complicated patient 
cases can fall to the care of Primary 
Care Providers (PCP) such as Family 
Medicine physicians and Family Nurse 
Practitioners (FNP). That circumstance 
is certainly true in Umatilla County, 
and I have been impressed with the 
diligence and hard work of my fellow 
caregivers in the region. I have also 
been impressed by their willingness to 
refer to me their problem cases which, 
of course, is most appropriate,” stated 
Dr. Iacoboni. 

“Most of those referrals have been 
hematology-based. But here was a 
nephrology referral that I could not 
turn down. Nephrology care is hard  
to get here. Patients have to go to  
Tri-Cities and it typically takes 1-3 
months to get an appointment.”

“One such patient was Tara. She has 
a very peculiar potassium-wasting 
nephropathy. Her PCP did what could 
be done, and what was required was 
that the patient had to drive every day 
to us to get 4 hours of intravenous 
potassium infusion, without which she 
would collapse and have seizures.” 

“One of the wound care nurses (Mazie) 
providing IV Therapy to Tara at Good 
Shepherd’s Treatment Center asked 
me if I would take on her case, even 

though I am not a nephrologist. As a 
medical oncologist, I am required to 
have expertise in the management of 
all medical systems, including kidney 
disease. When I reviewed Tara’s case, 
I was surprised to see how diligent 
she was in putting up with the 6-8 
hour time commitment for infusions 
every day of the week. She told me, 
somewhat tearfully, what it was like 
when she first collapsed and had a 
seizure. She would do anything to 
avoid revisiting that fate.”

Interestingly, Dr. Iacoboni could 
detect no underlying condition as 
the cause of her problem. She was 
young, healthy, hard-working and a 
mother of three. He set about testing 
and determined that, for reasons 
that remain unclear, her kidneys were 
not reabsorbing potassium as they 
should be such that she was losing 
her potassium through her urine and 
becoming depleted. 

“I took a chance and began treating 
her with a combination of drugs 
that were potentially effective for 
this condition. Treating potassium is 
tricky because if your adjustments 
make it too high or too low, serious 
complications, including ventricular 
fibrillation and even death, can occur.”

Dr. Iacoboni began seeing Tara up to 
2-3 times a week so that the Good 
Shepherd Cancer Center team could 
carefully and safely rebalance her 
electrolyte system. “I have learned  
over four decades of medical practice 
that taking extra time and effort can 
make a huge difference in the care  
of particularly complex patients such 
as Tara. Despite all the inconvenience, 
Tara was enthusiastic, compliant  
and always grateful for what we did  
for her.”

“Quite wonderfully, the treatments 
worked. Over a period of about six 
weeks, we were able to wean her off  
of the daily treatments entirely,” shared 
Dr. Iacoboni.

When reflecting back on her patient 
care experience over the past several 
months, Tara glows with gratefulness. 
“I remember when Dr. Iacoboni first 
came to meet me during one of my 
infusions at the Treatment Center,” 

shared Tara. “He really took me on as a 
puzzle and took excellent care of me. I 
was so used to being sent from doctor 
to doctor with no answers and here, 
Dr. Iacoboni had me off infusions and, 
with the right medication combination, 
back to normal life within a month.” 

“I would be lost without Dr. Iacoboni, 
he saved my life,” she stated. “I tell 
everyone I meet about him. If you need 
a hematologist or oncologist, go see 
him. When I hear his ad on the radio,  
I say, that’s the doctor that saved me.”

Patient Tara with Good Shepherd 

Cancer Center Nurse, Susan, RN

A resident of Boardman, 

Oregon, and current 

teacher in the local school 

district there, Tara enjoyed 

good health and the rural 

living Eastern Oregon 

provides. What many 

may not know is that she 
survived breast cancer at 

the early age of 16 and has 
since had very little follow-

up or complications. 

Close 

Cancer Care,

Patient Tara with Oncologist  

Dr. Stephen Iacoboni

“The care team at both Good 
Shepherd’s Treatment Center 

and Good Shepherd Cancer 

Center were incredible every 

step of the way. I want to 

thank Susan, Mazi, Jessica, 

Naomi, Mellissa and everyone 

else that helped me on my 

journey back to good health,” 

stated Tara.

“It was truly a blessing and a privilege 
to be able to help this nice young lady,” 
shared Dr. Iacoboni.

Tara is back to leading a normal life, 
working at the school in Boardman  
and extremely grateful to have 
her health restored. For Tara – 
compassionate care, close to home – 
had given her life back. 

to Home

Tara, Good Shepherd Cancer Center patient from Boardman, Oregon

10 | Community Connections | Fall 2020