Monica Bertagnolli: Taking Inspiration from Art Created by a Patient’s granddaughter

Monica Bertagnolli shared on LinkedIn:

“I have a very special artwork that hangs in my office, created by artist Suzi Grossman, the granddaughter of a former cancer patient of mine. As an oncologist and surgeon, I know the difficult decisions cancer patients face. This powerful piece, inspired by my courageous patient, is a reminder that with all cancer might take away physically, it does not diminish the person that remains.

Taking Inspiration from Art Created by a Patient’s granddaughter

I have a specific ritual when moving into a new office, as I did when I became NIH Director in 2023: I hang a very special framed screen print on the wall. This piece of art has followed me through several different offices, representing different positions I have held as a cancer surgeon, researcher, and educator.

It’s always the first thing I want to see as I settle into a new workplace. It serves as an inspiration for my work, for what so many of us involved in health care strive to do. I’d like to take this opportunity to tell you the story behind it.

Many years ago, in my role as an oncologist and surgeon, I had a very memorable patient, an older woman who had advanced cancer. From the time that I met her, she had incurable disease, so our goal was to make every effort, through multiple surgeries and chemotherapy, to help her continue living a life that she enjoyed for as long as possible.

She was very courageous and spirited in her attitude toward her disease; although realistic about her situation, she was determined not to let anything get in her way. She was in my care and remained undaunted for about a decade until she passed away as a result of her disease.

Sometime after that, an unexpected package arrived at my office. It was a screen print created and sent to me by my patient’s granddaughter, an emerging artist in the Boston area. She titled it:

“We Are Not What You Have Taken: A Response to Cancer.”

It is a very powerful piece of art. As you can see in the piece, my patient’s granddaughter created an artistic equation. First, she shows us a widely used symbol of a woman. Then, she uses images to represent the many surgeries her grandmother underwent, including a double mastectomy and operations to remove a kidney and a tumor that I remember describing to her as “the size of a football.”

She also underwent bowel resection and thyroid surgeries, and another image represents the loss of her hair with chemotherapy. But the product of the equation is the original symbol of a woman, telling us that after all that was taken from her, she was still the same person, with the same indomitable spirit and sense of self she had at the start.

Seeing this artwork every time I come into my office is a humbling experience for me. To me, this image recognizes the trauma that a surgeon inflicts to counteract the harm that cancer creates. People with cancer face incredible challenges and must make many difficult decisions concerning their treatment.

As a feature of these decisions, I don’t believe there is anything more profound than the trust a patient puts in their surgeon, allowing the surgeon to perform potentially life-altering operations. This work of art reminds me of the amazing courage of the woman it represents, who trusted in me and was determined not to let the trauma of cancer treatment diminish or define her.

Receiving such a meaningful work of art from a family member is very special for me. It is so challenging for family members to see a loved one going through all it takes to persevere in the face of this kind of disease, but my patient must have conveyed a message of strength and optimism to her granddaughter that led her to create this beautiful artwork.

I am so grateful to my patient’s granddaughter for creating and sharing this gift with me. I know her grandmother would be very proud of her for conveying its inspirational message in such a wonderful, moving way.”

Source: Monica Bertagnolli/LinkedIn

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Monica Bertagnolli is the Director of the National Institute of Health (NIH), USA. She is the President of Alliance for Clinical Trials In Oncology Foundation. She previously served as the Richard E. Wilson Professor of Surgery in the field of surgical oncology at Harvard Medical School, a surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and a member of the Gastrointestinal Cancer Treatment and Sarcoma Centers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Dr. Bertagnolli is the Founding Chair of the minimal Common Oncology Data Elements (mCODE) executive committee and has held multiple positions nationally, including being Past President and Chair of the Board of Directors of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. In 2021, she was elected to the National Academy of Medicine, having previously served on the National Academies National Cancer Policy Forum.