A Lesson In Life

Cancer changed Brian Hersh’s life, but didn’t stop him from graduating with his class

Brian Hersh with his mother, Marsha (left), and father, Tom, in their Lower Macungie Township home.

Until March 5, 2002, Brian Hersh’s life revolved a round going to classes and hanging out with his college buddies. But then “my bubble of invincibility popped, and suddenly I was acancer patient,” he says.

Hersh, then a University of Delaware junior, noticed some swelling and discomfort around his right testicle for about a week prior to March 5, but thought maybe he had a hernia. When the symptoms didn’t improve, he visited family physician Bruce Ellsweig, M.D., who referred him to LVHHN urologist Edward Mullin, M.D. “Testicular cancer never even crossed my mind,” Hersh says. “So when he told me that I needed surgery the next day, it felt like a bad dream. I couldn’t even move or talk.”

Mullin also told him good news: the cure rate for testicular cancer—considered the “young man’s cancer” because it commonly affects men ages 20 to 40—is about 90 percent with prompt treatment. “I was so scared that all I could think about was that other 10 percent,” Hersh says.

But then Hersh made a decision: “I wouldn’t let cancer beat me in any way.”

Surgeon Joseph Trapasso, M.D., removed the tumor, but the cancer had spread to some nearby lymph nodes. So Hersh’s treatment team, which also included oncologists Robert Post, M.D., and Lloyd Barron, M.D., and nurse practitioner Susan Gardner, decided on an intense nine-week course of chemotherapy.

“It was relentless, and I was really sick from it,” Hersh says. “But the people at the John and Dorothy Morgan Cancer Center were some of the greatest I ever met. They did everything possible to make me feel comfortable. They were always there for my parents, too. My mom calls them angels.”

By focusing on feeling good again and graduating on time, and with support from his professors, Hersh completed two courses from home. When he returned to school, he crammed in a couple extra courses and graduated with his class in May 2003.

“ There aren’t words to express how grateful I am for the continuous support of my family,” he says, “and for the wonderful way I was treated by the people at LVHHN. They made a bad situation bearable.”

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