Breast cancer care in Ghana boosted by doctor's supportive embrace in Suffern

SUFFERN − When Isabella Naana Asante was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015, she was overwhelmed. She'd been living in the U.S., working as a nurse at Good Samaritan Hospital. But in Ghana, where she's from, breast cancer was often a death sentence.

Asante scoured the internet looking for the right place to seek treatment for ductal carcinoma in situ, or DCIS. A co-worker recommended breast surgeon Dr. Karen Karsif, medical director at Good Sam.

A tired and scared Asante headed to Karsif's office the next morning, after a 12-hour nursing shift.

The first thing the doctor did: embrace Asante.

"Before I could get the words out, she hugged me," Asante recalled Wednesday during a visit with Karsif at Good Sam. The doctor's words calmed Asante: "You're going to be OK."

Asante went on to get a double mastectomy and reconstruction and has been cancer-free.

She then moved back to Ghana, where she found that compassionate and cutting-edge breast care was often unattainable for women.

So Asante established Embrace Society Ghana, naming it after the healing moment when Karsif hugged her and let her know she would be OK.

Adding treatments, breaking stigmas

Asante's non-governmental organization aims to improve breast care throughout Ghana, from diagnosis and treatment to education and social acceptance. Basically, Asante wants to make the kind of wraparound treatment she received available to people facing a breast cancer diagnosis in her home country.

That means training women to do regular self screenings and making more diagnostic equipment available.

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But Asante also wants to change the cultural stigma around breast cancer. Because treatment is so costly and years behind U.S. standards, many women don't even seek treatment. They don't want to face the stigma associated and fear it would not be successful.

She's set up a patient navigator system, similar to the kind Good Sam offers that helped Asante find insurance coverage. She's also offering counseling and financial support.

Asante is also helping establish the Embrace Breast Cancer Care Center at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi, the second-largest city in Ghana.

Compassion part of care

Karsif went to Ghana in June to see Asante and help her with Embrace.

"I had done some missions in other parts of the world," Karsif said, "but it was still a bit of a shock to see very young women coming in for advanced care."

It wasn't just a lack of resources. "It was a cultural issue," the breast surgeon said. Women weren't trained to do self-exams. "And if they find something, they think it's a death sentence, which it's not."

As for Asante's focus on compassion, Karsif said that's an integral part of care. A doctor can't focus solely on clinical issues, she said, "when there's a patient sitting there freaking out."

Next steps

Asante's visit coincides with Good Samaritan Hospital Foundation's annual Girls' Night Out fundraiser that takes place at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at the Pearl River Hilton.

She's bringing a young woman from Ghana who now lives in the Bronx and received her own breast cancer diagnosis at age 33. That woman is now a patient of Karsif.

And Karsif hugged that young woman, too.

"I hug all my patients," Karsif said. "It just seems like the natural thing to do."

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Ghana breast cancer care boosted by Suffern doctor hugging patient