Anonymous donor buys real-time breast-cancer screening machine for Covenant Health

The Misericordia now has a high-definition imaging machine that lets surgeons check -- while still in the operating room -- that they've successfully removed all cancerous cells.

The Misericordia Community Hospital now has a high-definition imaging machine that lets surgeons check — in real time while still in the operating room — that they’ve successfully removed all cancerous cells from patients’ breasts.

The Faxitron machine results in more accurate lumpectomies, shorter and more efficient surgeries, reduces the likelihood of repeat surgeries, and lessens strain on the hospital’s operating room space and resources.

“This system has allowed us to be much more efficient in the operating room because we just depend on ourselves,” Dr. Nikoo Rajaee explained. “We bring the specimen, we look at it ourselves, it takes us maybe one or two minutes, we go back to the operating room and finish our surgery.”

Using the Faxitron, breast cancer surgeons can take an X-ray of a specimen and ensure they’ve removed all the cancer “to make sure that the margins are negative and avoid further surgeries for the patient.”

“If I was in the operating room and I didn’t have the X-ray, two weeks later, I would be sitting in the office telling my patient we would have to come back and do a second surgery.”

Rajaee said every time a patient needs a second operation, it delays the rest of their therapies. The Faxitron, she said, expediates their care.

The high-definition specimen radiography system was made possible because of a $150,000 gift from an anonymous donor to the Covenant Foundation.

“We’re extremely grateful to the Covenant Foundation and to the anonymous donor,” Dr. Lashan Peiris said. “I’m constantly surprised and constantly in awe of people who give their time and their money to help better the service that we offer patients.”