WAILUKU >> Denise Mathews said she was grateful to be on Maui and relieved that her father, along with 15 other Guam patients, would resume receiving radiation treatment for cancer. Cancer patients from Guam
continue treatments on Maui
By Gary T. Kubota
gkubota@starbulletin.com"We can't let the day go by without being grateful," Mathews said.
Thirty-two Guam residents, including the 16 cancer patients and their helpers, arrived on Maui Sunday after a 15-hour trip, with stopovers in Japan and Honolulu.
The patients had been without treatment since Dec. 8 when Supertyphoon Pongsona flooded the Cancer Institute of Guam, the only radiological cancer treatment facility on the island and in Micronesia, said institute President Bobby Baker.
Baker said the typhoon destroyed the Guam facility, forcing patients to be transferred for treatment to the institute's sister facility on Maui.
Pongsona hit Guam with winds gusting to more than 180 mph.
Baker said he has a "whole new appreciation" for the Red Cross, which helped to bring together various agencies to assist the patients. He said the Federal Emergency Management Agency provided the airline tickets, and the Red Cross paid for housing at an assisted-living facility at Roselani Place on Maui.
Maui Economic Opportunity Inc. is providing the transportation between the facility and the institute. The institute hopes to complete re-evaluations of the patients' conditions by Thursday, Baker said.
Baker said the patients have a range of cancer-related ailments, including tumors in the head and neck, and the treatments will require radiation for about two to eight weeks.
He said when the patients arrived in Hawaii, they went through a state of shock at seeing buildings and trees standing.
"They were so used to the devastation," he said.
Antonia Perez said she was grateful to be on Maui to help her 83-year-old mother, Anna Camacho, receive radiation treatment.
But Perez she was worried about her disabled son and the rest of her family, whose house was destroyed in the typhoon.
Mathews said people on Maui have been helpful.
"The whole county of Maui has been gracious," she said. "It really lifted our spirits."
