Harmony Ward is a first-year undergraduate student at East Carolina University with a lifelong dream of one day becoming a nurse. It is a dream she almost had to put on pause as she instead found herself needing the very care she always hoped to provide.
Ward was just 17 years old when she started experiencing symptoms like dizziness and headaches. Then, her care team informed her of a terrifying discovery: a large tumor in her chest, wrapped around vital blood vessels near her spine and neck.
“I wasn’t really having symptoms from feeling the tumor,” Ward said. “I was having symptoms for another medical thing I have going on, which was diagnosed as multiple sclerosis (MS). I had an MRI done as part of my MS diagnosis, and that’s where they found the tumor.”
The diagnosis came as a shock. Not only was Ward grappling with MS, but she now faced a complex and potentially dangerous mass.
Dr. Robert Allman, a cardiothoracic surgeon at ECU Health and assistant professor of thoracic and foregut surgery at the Brody School of Medicine at ECU, was called in to evaluate the case. According to Dr. Allman, the tumor was a large mediastinal mass that extended into her neck and was wrapped around her subclavian artery. These tumors are rare and affect less than one percent of the population.
“Traditionally, removing something like that would require a very invasive surgery like splitting the breastbone, maybe even breaking the clavicle,” said Dr. Allman.
However, thanks to ECU Health’s advanced robotic surgery program, Dr. Allman was able to perform the procedure using minimally invasive robotic surgery.
“Harmony essentially just had to have four small incisions through her rib spaces because of the minimally invasive approach,” Dr. Allman said. “She was able to leave the hospital in two days. The pain benefit is enormous, and the recovery time and infection risks are significantly reduced.”
The timing could not have been more critical. Ward was just a month away from her high school graduation – a milestone she feared she might miss.
“I was very worried at first that I wouldn’t be able to make it to graduation,” she said. “But they said I would be healed in time. I actually got my stitches removed the day of my graduation so I could put on my dress and everything. It was a very emotional time.”
Dr. Allman remembers Ward not just for her medical case, but for her character.
“She’s very kind, very smart, very hardworking,” he said. “She really put her trust in us. We took our time to make sure she understood everything, and I’m just really happy we were able to help her this way. It allows her to pursue what she wants to do now.”
For Ward, the experience was both terrifying and transformative.
“This was the first time I’ve ever been in a hospital or had any surgeries, so it was very scary,” she said. “All of my medical problems hit me at once. I was going through the MS diagnosis and the tumor at the same time. I was just very worried, but Dr. Allman and his nurses, his team and my neurologist dealing with my MS were all very helpful and supportive and very calming.”
As Ward embarks on her journey toward one day becoming the nurse she’s always dreamed of, it is the perspective she gained as a patient that will guide her.
“I’ve always wanted to be a nurse to be able to help and take care of people,” said Ward. “This experience gave me a new perspective I can bring with me.”