November 22, 2017

Siouxland man beats the odds of pancreatic cancer

By Karl Oestreich

KTIV Siouxland
by Jennifer Lenzini

"When you've been diagnosed with a terminal disease such as pancreatic cancer, it's like being hit by a train," said Karl Schenk, Pancreatic Cancer Survivor. "You don't hear things, because the horn is so loud, you don't see things because the light is so bright, the pain is immense."…"It was KTIV Siouxland Logoearth-shattering," said Nancy Schenk, Karl's Wife. "I'm a physician, I knew exactly when they told me it was pancreatic cancer, what I needed to think. And that was 'he's not going to be here very much longer on this world." But, Karl and his wife were not giving up. They went to Mayo Clinic for a second opinion. There, he started chemo, and radiation therapy- which was everything but easy. "It's very difficult to go to something that you know is going to make you ill, it's going to make you feel bad, it's going to depress you," said Karl Schenk. "But you stand up and you say, 'thank you sir-may I have another one?' and you go for your next session."

Reach: KTIV-TV is the NBC affiliate for Sioux City, IA. Airing on channel 4, it is owned by Quincy Newspapers Inc. Its website has more than 188,000 unique visitors each month.

Context: Mark Truty, M.D., Karl Schenk's Mayo Clinic surgeon, is evaluating diagnostic and treatment strategies to improve perioperative outcomes of gastrointestinal surgical patients in an effort to minimize complications after surgery. You can read more about Dr. Truty's research here.

Contact:  Sharon Theimer

Tags: Dr. Mark Truty, Karl Schenk, KTIV, pancreatic cancer, Uncategorized

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