Robin Roberts: A Profile in Courage
Robin Roberts: A Profile in Courage
The 'GMA' anchor and cancer survivor reveals her 10 'health heroes.'
''And then I heard a voice saying my name over and over again. There was a nurse named Jenny, pleading with me not to slip away. I don't know what would have happened if she wasn't there.''
Jenny stands out in her memory, but Roberts praises all the nurses who cared for her. ''They're on the front lines, Honey! They know what's working and what's not working before anyone else.''
After her transplant, Roberts spent an agonizing month in isolation in the hospital as Sally-Ann's stem cells took up residence in her bone marrow and her immune system slowly rebuilt. She was itching to escape her hospital room to walk, but if her daily blood counts weren't good, she had to remain confined.
''My nurses would draw my blood at 5 each morning, but the new numbers wouldn't be posted until later. They were so cool -- if they felt the numbers would be down, they'd say, 'Look, we haven't posted them yet, you better get out of the room now and walk under your old numbers.' I'd be like, 'Thank you!' And I'd scurry out of there.''
Diane Sawyer, at the time the anchor of ABC World News, ''should have been a doctor,'' Roberts declares.
She was the first colleague to learn about Roberts' MDS. ''I didn't want to tell anybody outside the family until I had a good grip on it,'' she says. ''But then I saw her randomly at a luncheon, and I was overwhelmed. I said, 'I have to talk to you; I'm ill again. I'll give you a call later.'''
Roberts had barely stepped into her car when her cell phone rang. ''She said, 'Tell me now.''' Roberts did, and Sawyer swung into action. ''She called doctors all over the world for me.''
When it came time to break the news to her bosses at ABC, Roberts went in with her friend Richard Besser, MD, ABC News' chief medical correspondent. ''He not only was able to talk to me in terms I could understand, he could talk to them. We were just like this little stealth team. It was good to have people who truly understood, who were also connected with my work.''
Robin Roberts: A Profile in Courage
The 'GMA' anchor and cancer survivor reveals her 10 'health heroes.'
6. Her Nurses continued...
''And then I heard a voice saying my name over and over again. There was a nurse named Jenny, pleading with me not to slip away. I don't know what would have happened if she wasn't there.''
Jenny stands out in her memory, but Roberts praises all the nurses who cared for her. ''They're on the front lines, Honey! They know what's working and what's not working before anyone else.''
After her transplant, Roberts spent an agonizing month in isolation in the hospital as Sally-Ann's stem cells took up residence in her bone marrow and her immune system slowly rebuilt. She was itching to escape her hospital room to walk, but if her daily blood counts weren't good, she had to remain confined.
''My nurses would draw my blood at 5 each morning, but the new numbers wouldn't be posted until later. They were so cool -- if they felt the numbers would be down, they'd say, 'Look, we haven't posted them yet, you better get out of the room now and walk under your old numbers.' I'd be like, 'Thank you!' And I'd scurry out of there.''
7. Her Colleagues
Diane Sawyer, at the time the anchor of ABC World News, ''should have been a doctor,'' Roberts declares.
She was the first colleague to learn about Roberts' MDS. ''I didn't want to tell anybody outside the family until I had a good grip on it,'' she says. ''But then I saw her randomly at a luncheon, and I was overwhelmed. I said, 'I have to talk to you; I'm ill again. I'll give you a call later.'''
Roberts had barely stepped into her car when her cell phone rang. ''She said, 'Tell me now.''' Roberts did, and Sawyer swung into action. ''She called doctors all over the world for me.''
When it came time to break the news to her bosses at ABC, Roberts went in with her friend Richard Besser, MD, ABC News' chief medical correspondent. ''He not only was able to talk to me in terms I could understand, he could talk to them. We were just like this little stealth team. It was good to have people who truly understood, who were also connected with my work.''
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