News

Prostate Cancer Awareness Reaches Beyond September

By G. Todd Hill, CEO UT Health East Texas Physicians

The recognition last month of Prostate Cancer Month got me thinking about my own exposure to prostate cancer through watching three generations on my father’s side deal with it.

The second and third generation (my grandfather and my father and uncles) received early diagnosis and were success stories. I did get to see the benefit of PSA surveillance and even saw the progression of surgical methods from open to laparoscopic methods. The recovery for the open surgery was grueling and had many issues from surgery that...

Photos of Brian Low before and after surgery by Dr. Charles Keith

For 34-year-old Brian Low, obesity was very depressing.

“I was severely obese and depressed,” said Brian. “At my heaviest, I weighed 388 pounds. It was hard to do anything, which made me feel terrible.”

Brian also suffered from sleep apnea, which is a potentially serious sleep disorder when one’s breathing repeatedly stops and starts through the night. In addition to snoring loudly, the person also feels tired in the morning, even after a full night’s sleep.

Feeling tired and depressed made Brian’s mood spin lower and lower every day. After a while, he knew he had...

It took one person to offer Ruth Rendon a glimpse at her future, first by giving her a job and then opportunities to advance, offering support and mentorship along the way. Now Rendon is paying that forward in her position as a human resources executive assistant and certified interpreter for UT Health East Texas.

That boss and mentor gave Rendon a chance when she wasn’t sure where her path in life would lead. Rendon moved from Mexico City to Texas with her family when she was 8, struggling to learn English and sometimes bullied by others because of it. Rendon attended Angelina...

Husband and wife work through their bariatric surgeries together!

Sometimes it is easier to do difficult things when you use the “buddy system.”

For the husband and wife team of Don and Lori Cupples, losing weight and recovering from gastric bypass surgery was much easier because they did it together at the same time.

The two live in Chandler and are patients of Dr. Charles Keith, a board-certified bariatric surgeon at the UT Health Tyler Bariatric Center. Don is 49 and is an English teacher and coach at Jacksonville High School. Lori, 52, is a dental...

Our body is like a finely-tuned automobile. Treat it right and it can last for a very long time.

But when you overload a vehicle with too much weight, the tires can wear out quickly and you face the possibility of a blowout. This extra strain also means the engine has to work harder to make the vehicle move, which usually means more problems down the road.

Merribeth Norman, who with her husband shares a love for driving and showing their antique car (above), had similar health concerns that led her to take serious steps to get back into good health.

Medical...

As the practice administrator for nine different rural health clinics in east Texas, Rhonda Keller regularly drives hundreds of miles to check-in with the doctors, nurses and staff who operate the clinics.

She talks to them about the patients they see, the care they provide and how more serious cases have to be transferred to UT Health Tyler.

So when Rhonda started having symptoms of extreme fatigue, she didn’t realize she would soon become one of those transferred patients to UT Health Tyler.

“I just thought it was all stress related, caused by work and everything...

Join UT Health East Texas primary care sports medicine physicians, Drs. Mike Galbraith and Becky Peebles, as they demonstrate stretches and exercises that can help strengthen you body and prevent injuries.

Watch Video »

Employee Spotlight: Ivan Leon, Senior HR Business Partner

Ivan Leon has always been a helper, someone who facilitates communication and bridges gaps. First it was through his job as an EMS dispatcher, then manager of the EMS dispatch center. More recently he moved into a human resources role and joined the UT Health East Texas Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Council, where he feels his work is only just beginning.

Leon started his healthcare career as a 911 dispatcher after seeing the position advertised in his local newspaper right after he graduated high school.

“I said, ‘Let’s see what that’s all about,’ and I loved it. I loved...

Summer Patterson (from left) donated coloring books to Kelly Diduch, RN, and Robin Davis, clinical manager for pediatrics, at UT Health Tyler. Summer created the coloring books as part of her Girl Scout Bronze Award service project. She got the idea for the coloring books from her own hospital stays as a child.

Summer Patterson remembers all too well being a patient in the hospital, bored with nothing to do while she recovered from four eye surgeries before her 10^th birthday.

The Whitehouse ISD sixth grader didn’t want other kids to face the same situation, so she used her Girl Scout service project to devise a solution. For her Bronze Award project, Summer created coloring books that she distributed to local hospitals, including UT Health Tyler, along with a set of crayons for each book.

“It was her idea, and she did all the work herself,” said Girl Scout Troop 6704...

Mary Urieta, orthopedic clinic supervisor at UT Health Tyler, still remembers how being in the hospital made her feel when she was 8 years old. While many kids that age might feel scared, Urieta remembers the hospital as a place where she and her parents felt accepted and valued, like they belonged.

Urieta’s family emigrated from Mexico to Texas when she was just 7, and she remembers how different she felt because her family didn’t look or talk like everyone else. She vividly recalls the faces people would make at her mother in the grocery store when they heard her speaking with an...

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