by Len Lear

With the ubiquitous news media coverage of the coronavirus pandemic, one related issue that may be receiving insufficient coverage is that many people with other life-threatening illnesses are terrified to go to local hospitals to get the treatment they desperately need.

Case in point: Desiree Harmon, 45, the director of middle school at Friends Select School in Center City, who lives in Mt. Airy with her husband, Allen, a retired Philadelphia Police Officer who spent the last 20 years of his career in the K-9 division, a son, Drayden, 18, and daughter, Dakota, 17.

Five years ago Desiree was diagnosed with breast cancer and was treated with chemotherapy and a double mastectomy. The painful treatment was eventually able to return Desiree to her family as well as her job. However, like many other post-treatment patients, she had to continue getting drugs that suppressed estrogen and enabled her to function normally.

(Some types of breast cancer are affected by hormones, like estrogen and progesterone. The breast cancer cells have receptors — proteins — that attach to estrogen and progesterone, which help them grow. Treatments that stop these hormones from attaching to the receptors are called hormone or endocrine therapy.)

This treatment consisted of monthly visits to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP) in West Philadelphia. “I had to work my life around this shot,” Harmon said.

However, when local hospitals began filling up with coronavirus patients, it terrified many other hospital patients because experts insist that a major risk factor for catching coronavirus is already having a seriously compromised immune system, which patients receiving cancer drugs certainly have. As a result, some local hospitals have increased home cancer care.

In other words, instead of going to HUP once a month for her treatment, Harmon now gets a visit at her Mt. Airy home once a month from a nurse who gives the already homebound educator her much-needed treatment.

“I think the at-home infusion program is ingenious,” Harmon told us last week. “Having a nurse come to my home to administer this treatment has saved me from having to decide what was more important, protecting my compromised immune system (because of the cancer treatment) and receiving care that is crucial to remaining cancer-free.”

The number of HUP cancer patients now receiving their treatments at home is over 800, although that is still a relatively small percentage of their cancer patients. According to a recent CNN report, Telehealth services (virtual treatment and home visits) have increased in the past few weeks all over the U.S., and federal agencies have deregulated some of the provisions that prevented insurance companies from covering such services, allowing Medicaid now to cover them.

Harmon grew up in Darby, Delaware County, and graduated from Penn Wood High School and Cabrini College in 1999 after double majoring in Spanish and History. “I was a first-generation college student,” she said, “and my mom encouraged me to pursue my passions, I wanted to work for the FBI but realized in my senior year that I wanted to go into education.”

After graduating from Cabrini, Harmon began working at two independent schools. She also had gotten married and started a family, so she took a year off in 2002 to stay at home with her two young children. For the last 18 years she has worked at Friends Select.

“What I love about my current job at Friends Select,” she said, “is that I have been able to come up through the ranks, and it is very much a community of colleagues who support and encourage you.”

Harmon's school moved to an online platform in mid-March, creating online class schedules, but “I had to be out of school a few days prior to transitioning to online classes because of my compromised immune system.”

The Mt. Airy resident for the past five years insisted that “I love living in Mt. Airy! I love the trees and greenery, people walking down the street saying hello, the mix of people and cultures. Mt. Airy has a friendly, laid-back vibe.”

When asked what was the hardest thing she has ever done, Harmon replied, “Hands down, the hardest thing I have ever had to do was tell my kids that I had cancer. My heart broke watching their eyes process what I was telling them and asking me if I was going to die. The hardest thing physically I ever had to do was undergo chemotherapy. It ravishes your body, and the after-effects are hard “Being diagnosed at 39, undergoing a double mastectomy and chemotherapy, all while ending a 15-year marriage, I could never imagine that I would be where I am now: healthy, happy and in love! I am living my best life and loving every minute of it!”

You can reach Len Lear at lenlear@chestnuthilllocal.com