TAMPA, Fla. — Two Tampa General Hospital employees, both working in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, both diagnosed with breast cancer. That frightening diagnosis came just one week apart for Diane Allen and Gloribel Medina.
The two women leaned on each other for support. They both made the decision to have bilateral mastectomies. Now, more than a year following their diagnoses, they are among the more than 4 million breast cancer survivors in the United States.
Throughout their treatment, the women continued to work at TGH's NICU helping to provide care to the hospital's smallest patients.
For Allen, who works as a neonatal occupational therapist, the diagnosis was especially scary. Her son survived a brain tumor as a young child so her family understood the severity. She didn't let that deter her fight.
"I am a person who's sad for a day and then take a deep breath and say 'Let's get this started, let's get this done," she explained.
Medina, who works as a neonatal nurse practitioner, didn't tell her colleagues about her diagnosis at first because she wanted to remain focused on her work in the NICU.
Now, she's using her story to spread the word to others. "Do breast self-exams - women and men! Request a mammogram at as early an age as you can get one," she elaborated.
ABC Action News reporter Michael Paluska heads to Weedon Island, which has a rich history that dates back more than 12,000 years. During that time, it was home to Indigenous populations, a movie studio, an airport, a safe haven for bootleggers during prohibition, and so much more. Today, the preserve protects this wide diversity of natural and cultural resources for current and future generations.
