A cancer diagnosis can be a crippling blow, and the effects of the disease extend psychologically beyond the patient.
“I know a lot about the terror of the disease,” said Mark Davenport. “Although never a cancer patient, as a family member and a caregiver I know the emotional and spiritual toll it has on a person.”
So when Davenport saw an opportunity to make an impact for those needing highly specialized cancer treatment, he knew in his heart what to do. He recently made a $300,000 donation in honor of his mother and cancer survivor Pat R. Davenport to Mercy Health Foundation Oklahoma City to help fund gamma knife equipment.
Contrary to the name, gamma knife technology uses not a knife but 201 tiny beams of radiation to treat cancer with pin-point accuracy without damaging healthy tissue.
“We wanted to partner with Mercy because we envisioned bringing the very best in cancer care to one building and the Mercy Coletta Center fit our purpose,” Mark Davenport said. “Paired with Mercy’s exceptional doctors and staff, we feel we are bringing the best-in-class cancer treatment to Oklahoma.”
“Adding the gamma knife to Mercy’s scope of cancer treatment enhances our team-based approach to personalized care for our patients with complex needs,” explained Carla Kurkjian, MD, Mercy vice president of oncologist services. “We bring together neurosurgery, medical oncology and radiation oncology to deliver the best treatment plan with more efficiency and better accuracy.”
“Using gamma knife, many patients are treated in half the time of conventional methods,” Kurkjian added. “Every hour less spent here is an hour more spent with loved ones.”
And Pat R. Davenport emphasized the value of more time with loved ones saying, “It is an honor to have my name associated with a device that will change people’s lives for the better.”
