Ouachita County Louisiana Archives Obituaries.....EARL, JANICE POWELL HODNETT April 8, 2014 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Gina Brown rootsgirl36@gmail.com April 12, 2014, 12:24 am News Star World - April 11, 2014 JANICE POWELL HODNETT EARL Mrs. Janice Powell Hodnett Earl was featured in the "Monroe, Morning World" as an Editorial Spotlight on April 5, 1964. She was a retired Executive Secretary at Glenwood Medical Center. VICTORIES IN WAR AGAINST CANCER REJECTING IDEA "As I heard that long word." Janice recalled, "I thought, 'it can be cured with a few pills and there in nothing to worry about.' Then the doctor said 'malignancy' and I knew. Cancer!" All through the next few hours as she was finding out more about her illness, such as the fact that it is fatal in 55 percent of cases six months after the onset and in 75 per cent during the first two years, Janice said her mind kept rejecting the whole idea. "This can't be happening to me. I'm so young—only 21. This can't be happening to me." The only prevalent treatment was surgery followed by x-ray treatments, Janice's doctor told, and even with this method there was no assurance that she would be completely cured. "Heartbroken, I gave my consent for the operation," Janice continues, "although it meant I would never be able to have children." The night before the surgery was scheduled, Janice's doctor mentioned that we had been reading about a new drug, still being researched, that might be possibly able to cure Choriocarcinoma. He explained to Janice that if she chose this treatment, she would latterly be setting herself up as a human "guinea pig." After the fact that there was no guarantee that the medication would be affective, there would definitely be painful and toxic effects from the extremely powerful drug. NEW HOPE "I knew immediately that this was the answer I had prayed for," Janice said. My surgery was canceled 12 hours before the operation. The minute the decision was made to take the new medicine, I felt like a new person. I believed in it— I knew it would work. From then on I relied upon my favorite scripture to help me: 'I can do all things through Christ which strengthen me.'" Janice was the first person in Monroe to undergo this type of medication, which required hospitalization and constant supervision with each treatment. Her reactions were quite favorable at the start, but after five doses at a local hospital, her physicians decided that her progress had came to a standstill even though there was a small amount of the cancer left. After consultation with specialists at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Md., where the preliminary testing of the drug took place, Janice's doctors sent her to Passavant Memorial Hospital in Chicago, for treatments with a second type of medicine. FORTUNATE TIMING If anything can be said to have been fortunate about Janice's illness it was the timing. In October, 1962, The National Institutes of Health issued a three- year grant totaling approximately $158,000 to open a Choriocarcinoma treatment center at Passsavant. Serving at a research subject at the newly opened center, Janice had all of her expenses paid by NIH. She and her husband went to Chicago in January, 1963, where she was the twentieth person to receive this treatment. Then on March 31, 1963, Janice concluded. " Now it all sounds like a bad dream. But it did happen to me, and now that it's over, I realize how fortunate to have been able to take advantage of, and be a part of, some of the valuable research on cancer." Mrs. Janice went to her heavenly home on April 8, 2014 at the age of 73. Services were under the direction of Griffin Funeral Home West Monroe, LA. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/la/ouachita/obits/e/earl2528nob.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/lafiles/ File size: 4.1 Kb