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Kemp approves ‘Gift of Life Act’ By CHAMIAN CRUZ chamian@appenmedia.com
ROSWELL INC/PROVIDED
Shown is part of Wellstar North Fulton Hospital’s recent renovations. A groundbreaking ceremony for its new comprehensive cancer center build-out is slated for Wednesday, May 25.
Wellstar building cancer treatment destination Healthcare system invests $10 million in Roswell facility By CHAMIAN CRUZ chamian@appenmedia.com ROSWELL, Ga. — Wellstar North Fulton Hospital is investing approximately $10 million to expand its cancer center program over the next year. Jon-Paul Croom, president of Wellstar North Fulton Hospital, says the fully comprehensive cancer center will house surgical, medical and radiation oncology, and an approximately $6 million CyberKnife system to treat everything from brain tumors and prostate cancers
to lung cancers. CyberKnife technology, a noninvasive option for surgically complex or inoperable tumors that enables the radiation oncologist to deliver targeted, high doses of radiation, requires no anesthesia, hospitalization or lengthy recovery period. Wellstar North Fulton’s sister facility, Wellstar Kennestone Hospital, is currently the only program in Atlanta that offers patients with this capability. Up till now, patients have had to wait up to four weeks to get on the Cyberknife machine. Dr. Mark McLaughlin, a radiation oncologist who is spearheading the expansion, said anywhere from 10 to 15 patients a week are transferred to the Kennestone location from North Fulton to have their radiation treatment.
“They’re either outpatients who live in the Roswell, Alpharetta area, or they’re in-patients who have to be transferred from one hospital to the other to get radiation because they’re so sick,” McLaughlin said. “Our expectation is, once we get situated here and have full-time staff, that is going to grow incrementally.” McLaughlin has been at Wellstar North Fulton for about three and a-half years and with the Wellstar system since 2005. Before that, he worked at the Mayo Clinic for nearly 14 years but came back to take care of his parents when they had cancer. Having been on both sides, McLaughlin said he hopes Wellstar North Fulton can become a “cancer destination” for the community.
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ROSWELL, Ga. — Gov. Brian Kemp has signed into law a bill known as the “Giving the Gift of Life Act,” or House Bill 275, inspired by State Sen. John Albers who donated a kidney to his son last summer. The bill was signed May 2 and accomplishes two main goals. It prevents life insurance companies from canceling or denying coverage to someone who donates all or part of their kidney, liver, pancreas, intestine, lung or bone marrow, and it increases a tax credit from $10,000 up to $25,000 to cover a donor’s lost wages and other impacts. After signing the legislation, Albers thanked Kemp for giving more Georgians “access to life-saving organ donations.” “Many families in Georgia have experienced the difficult decision to either donate potentially life-saving organs or risk losing their insurance coverage,” Albers said. “After serving as a living donor to my son last year, I saw this struggle first-hand and was committed to finding a solution to ensure no potential donor would be unfairly penal-
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