Jan 2, 2026 | Patient Stories
When Kelly Kelly thinks back to early 2024, she remembers feeling unusually tired and disconnected. She kept pushing through her days, working at a surgical practice, helping care for her aging mom and settling into life with her new husband. But something felt off....
Jan 2, 2026 | Cancer, Patient Stories
Cathey Chustz has lived in Louisiana her entire life, rooted in the community she loves. So when she retired from the Livingston Parish Public School System, it felt natural to explore the world beyond home. Travel became her new passion, and she made it a priority to...
Nov 17, 2025 | Patient Stories
Tennis is life to Shelby Dufrene. She played tennis in college at University of Louisiana – Lafayette and has taught tennis in Baton Rouge for more than three years. Nothing could keep her from the tennis court — even a diagnosis of stage 3 pancreatic cancer. And it...
Nov 1, 2024 | Patient Stories
Henry Chase was used to joining his wife, Judith, who has emphysema, for checkups with her pulmonologist, James L. Vermaelen, MD. As they were leaving one of those checkups in October 2023, Henry asked Dr. Vermaelen a question that had been weighing on his mind. “I...
Sep 28, 2023 | Patient Stories
For Terry Broussard, “throwing a promise at a problem” was his way of staring cancer in the face and showing his determination to fight on. His promise was that he would overcome stage 4 renal cell cancer — a type of cancer that starts in the kidney — and that through...
