As a career coach & motivational speaker Dean Karrel is used to giving advice on how to get a job or how to secure a promotion. What he doesn’t typically talk about – how to battle cancer – until now.
In December of 2021, Dean, an instructor of 15 courses on LinkedIn Learning with 1.5 million global learners, was diagnosed with non muscle invasive, high-grade bladder cancer.
He was treated with Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG), a liquid immunotherapy drug that’s given directly into the bladder to stimulate the immune system to attack the cancer cells.
“It was keeping the cancer at bay, but unfortunately, it was not going away,” explains Dean, who was told that he was at risk of the cancer spreading to other parts of his body.
“That’s when I started to do a little research and found a surgeon by the name of Dr. Mutahar Ahmed with Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey who has pioneered some of the most successful urologic procedures, especially complex robotic surgeries,” says Dean. Dr. Ahmed eventually told Dean that to get ahead of the cancer, he would need a radical cystectomy to remove the whole bladder.
“I’m typically a very upbeat person but this really was lousy news and I was not happy,” says Dean who was facing the realization that with no bladder, Dr. Ahmed would need to create another way for his body to collect and pass urine. The most common way is through a surgical opening in the wall of the abdomen that a pouch is applied to. He would have to wear a pouch under his clothes for the rest of his life.
“After surgery one morning, my pouch was leaking, I was soaked, I needed help changing it and I thought, is this my life?,” remembers Dean who said he had tears in his eyes when one of his nurses, Jamie Dercole, walked in his room. “She knew I was overwhelmed and she took the time to talk to me and let me know that help was available, I wasn’t in this alone.”
Now Dean wants other bladder cancer patients to know that same feeling of relief. He returned to Hackensack University Medical Center – during National Hospital Week – to not only thank his entire cancer care team in person – but to give pep talks to some of those patients just post similar procedures.
“Rarely does an entire team get to meet their patients again so this was really inspirational for them to see how well Dean is doing and to hear directly from him about the difference they made in his life,” says Mary Jo Conley, a Wound, Ostomy and Continence nurse with the Department of Surgery, who invited Dean to come back and speak.
“When Dean met one of our patients, Gary Heiser, who just had his bladder removed due to cancer a couple days prior, there was not a dry eye in the room,” says nurse manager, Megan Weinman.
“To hear from your doctor that everything is going to be ok is one thing,” says Gary.
“But to hear from someone who was sitting in the same hospital bed, for the very same reason, that everything is going to be ok, is indeed motivating.”
Dean, who is now cancer free, says like with anything in life, you must find your motivation to succeed.
For more information or an interview, contact mary.mcgeever@hmhn.org
