Twitter Users Can Follow in Real Time as Local Woman Receives Cyberknife Treatment for L...( Wellmont wil...),Health

Wellmont will be first health system in nation to 'tweet' CyberKnife procedure.

Bluff City, TN (Vocus) September 2, 2009 -- Spend one hour with Delaine Anderson, and it's clear she does not shrink from life's challenges. She has spent the last 25 years in the same Bluff City home but lived in different parts of the country before that. She even lived seven years in Greece, where she didn't speak the language. She raised five children. The past few years, Anderson and friends have sent affordable wheelchairs to developing nations for people who can't otherwise afford them.

Anderson knows how to help others - as well as take care of herself. Lung cancer, though, was a challenge that brought her to her knees. And surgery wasn't an option to remove the cancerous spot because doctors were afraid her heart wasn't up to major surgery.

"Oh boy, I was in bad shape," Anderson said. "I couldn't talk to anyone. I just wanted to sit in my chair and cry."

Then she heard a word that gave her new hope: CyberKnife. She learned this innovative technology that uses robotics to deliver precision radiation treatment was available at Bristol Regional Medical Center, the only hospital in the region to offer the CyberKnife Stereotactic Radiosurgery System.
"I was so fortunate to be living near a hospital that has the CyberKnife," Anderson said.

Anderson will receive four CyberKnife treatments this week, and Twitter users throughout the region and from around the country can follow her final treatment in real time via Twitter. '/>"/>