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Home / Rotorua Daily Post

'They told me I was going to die'

Rotorua Daily Post
14 Aug, 2009 05:00 AM3 mins to read

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Rotorua's Jim Bishop is a walking miracle.
He's believed to be only one of 70 pancreatic cancer sufferers from the Waikato/Bay of Plenty region to beat the killer disease.
The inspirational man was a keynote speaker at yesterday's National Maori Cancer Forum at the Heritage Hotel in Rotorua.
In an emotional speech, he
said doctors had told him he didn't have long to live. Now he's in remission.
"I got through it. I went through all that pain and agony and was a survivor."
Mr Bishop's journey began 16 months ago, when sudden weight loss despite having a "bit of a puku" was raising concern.
"I noticed I was losing weight and while I was enjoying it, it was obvious something was wrong," Mr Bishop said.
He became a "human dart board", exposed to a barrage of blood tests and scans as a medical team searched for answers. A test on his pancreas showed a benign tumour which was removed and a few weeks later, Mr Bishop was back to work - but he couldn't shake the feeling something was still not right.
His intuition proved correct.
Mr Bishop spoke yesterday of his anger and frustration at being told the heartbreaking news that he had terminal pancreatic cancer and had less than a year to live.
"They told me I had approximately three to six months to live.
"Your life flashes before you and things go through your mind like, 'how did this happen? What did I do to deserve this? Why me?"'
As he lay in his Rotorua Hospital bed contemplating his death sentence after surgery to unblock a stent, Mr Bishop was unaware he was about to meet a man that would change his life forever.
He was consultant general surgeon Dr Bertrand Jauffret.
Suspecting a misdiagnosis, Dr Jauffret sought out the sick man and provided him with the glimmer of hope he desperately craved.
"He came in and said that he thought I had been misdiagnosed," Mr Bishop said. "Since he has come into my life, a hell of a lot of things have changed in my life. I appreciate my wife and all of those kinds of things happen when you are put on a pedestal and you realise you have to change."
Dr Jauffret changed the diagnosis from inoperable pancreatic cancer and decided the best course of action was to perform a surgical technique called the Whipple's Procedure.
Before surgery, the patient must take special medication to harden the pancreas - which has a butter-like consistency. The hardening makes it easier to slice through the pancreas, remove any malignant tumours and and stitch it back up. Surgeons remove the head of the pancreas, most of the duodenum (part of the small intestine), a portion of the bile duct and sometimes a portion of the stomach. Mr Bishop was on the operating table for just under nine hours.
On December 8 last year, nearly two years after his ordeal began, he received the news all cancer sufferers dream of - he was officially in remission.
The three-day forum has attracted about 250 people and was scheduled to finish today.

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