Infusion Center offers vital therapy close to home
Betty Pike, of Boothbay, and Dominic Garvey, of Boothbay Harbor, receive transfusions in the new Infusion Center on the St. Andrews Campus of LincolnHealth. The Infusion Center, part of recent renovations to the Urgent Care Center made possible by Paul and Giselaine Coulombe, offers cancer patients or other patients who suffer from an illness treated with blood transfusions or drugs delivered intravenously, a comfortable place to receive their therapy close to home. Courtesy of Alan Crowell
Betty Pike, of Boothbay, and Dominic Garvey, of Boothbay Harbor, receive transfusions in the new Infusion Center on the St. Andrews Campus of LincolnHealth. The Infusion Center, part of recent renovations to the Urgent Care Center made possible by Paul and Giselaine Coulombe, offers cancer patients or other patients who suffer from an illness treated with blood transfusions or drugs delivered intravenously, a comfortable place to receive their therapy close to home. Courtesy of Alan Crowell
A year ago, Dominic Garvey was diagnosed with a form of leukemia and told he had about six months to live.
That diagnosis was devastating, but Garvey continues to fight with the help of the Infusion Center on the St. Andrews Campus of LincolnHealth, only a few miles from his home. Before the center opened, friends often had to drive him to Brunswick and wait for hours as he received a transfusion.
Blood transfusions are the only therapy available for his particular disease.
“The fact that they can be here in my community is an incredible relief,” said Garvey.
With two large reclining chairs, a wide screen television and plenty of room, the new center is much more comfortable than the room where patients previously received transfusions.
Even more important than the facility itself, said Garvey, is the staff. Infusion Center nurse Rachel Manning, RN, knows patients by name and understands their medical conditions and clinical needs.
“Rachel is just incredible and Carole (Sharkey) is incredible,” said Garvey.
Carole Sharkey, manager of the Urgent Care Center on the St. Andrews Campus, often helps care for infusion patients.
Over the past two years, Sharkey said she has come to realize how important it is to offer services like blood transfusions and medication infusions locally. Without local services, patients with sometimes debilitating diseases may have to drive an hour or more away in sometimes treacherous conditions.
In addition to blood transfusions, antibiotic therapy, iron replacement therapy, steroid therapy and injections are also offered at the Infusion Center.
Sharkey encourages patients who currently leave the area for services to ask their primary care provider if they can receive the service close to home.
“I want all of the people who can take advantage of it to take advantage,” she said.
Patients like Betty Pike, of Boothbay, who was diagnosed about 12 years ago with myelodysplasia, a condition that requires treatment with regular transfusions, said when she received her transfusions in Damariscotta, her husband had to drive a total of about 72 miles.
“This is wonderful. It is a wonderful facility and the people are knowledgeable and very kind,” said Pike.
For more information about the Infusion Center, call Carole Sharkey at 633-1940.
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