Cloth of kindness

After learning she might have a tumor in her lung that was growing into her chest wall, Kuba Rae Merritt of Neptune Beach wasn’t looking forward to another cancer surgery. A 20-year breast cancer survivor, Merritt had been living with excruciating back pain for months. Confined to a couch day and night, she was a prisoner in her own home.

“It got to a point where I said, ‘I can’t do this anymore,’” Merritt explained. “But I also wasn’t ready to give up either.”

Merritt consulted her pulmonologist, Juan Pulido, MD, who scheduled a biopsy and a PET scan at Baptist Medical Center Beaches. But first, Dr. Pulido’s office referred her to Subrato Deb, MD, MPH, section chief of thoracic surgery at Baptist MD Anderson Cancer Center.

“When we went to see Dr. Deb, we thought we were just there for a biopsy consult,” said Merritt’s oldest daughter, Kim. “I thought it was a waste of time because I knew my mother would never agree to surgery. But Dr. Deb just won her over.”

Weighing her options

Kuba Merritt was reeling in pain the day she went to see Dr. Deb. The strong prescription medications she had been taking for months were no longer effective. Sitting in Dr. Deb’s office, she felt weak and cold and asked for a blanket to wrap around her legs.

Dr. Deb wanted to skip the bone biopsy and proceed straight to robot-assisted surgery, a minimally invasive surgical procedure where the surgeon controls robotic arms equipped with miniature surgical instruments and a high-definition camera for exceptional visibility and control. Robotic surgery usually results in shorter hospital stays, quicker recovery times and less post-operative pain for patients.

The more Merritt listened, the more comfortable she became.

“What he was telling me was a bit scary, but I was in so much pain that I went ahead and scheduled the surgery right then and there,” Merritt said.

As a nurse was going over the pre-operation instructions, the blanket Merritt was clinging to fell to the floor. Without hesitating, Dr. Deb got up from his chair, came around his desk, picked up the blanket, folded it and gently placed it back on Merritt’s lap.

“We were both so moved that he took the time to do that,” Kim Merritt said. “My mother was in so much pain. She had stopped eating and was down to 90 pounds. My big question to Dr. Deb was, ‘Would the surgery relieve my mother’s pain?’ He said he couldn’t be certain, but there was a chance it would.”

’This is what I have to do’

A lifelong smoker whose husband died of lung cancer in 2005, Merritt spent three days at Baptist Medical Center Jacksonville recovering from a lung lobectomy, a surgery to remove the tumor and a section of lung to prevent the cancer from spreading to other parts of the body. Kim Merritt said the robotic surgery saved her mother’s life because the tumor had started attaching to her bones.

Kuba Merritt said she was up and walking after the second day in the hospital.

“It was a good three weeks before I wasn’t sore anymore, but the surgery was well worth it,” said Merritt, who celebrated her 82nd birthday in 2024. “One day, I’d like to see how all those robotic arms do their job. Dr. Deb was able to remove an entire cancerous lobe from one of my lungs and going in, I wasn’t sure that was possible. The thought of surgery initially terrified me but there was something I saw in Dr. Deb that made me say, ‘This is what I have to do.’ I couldn’t have asked for anyone better.”

In 2024, Baptist Medical Center Jacksonville’s Thoracic Surgery Program earned a three-star rating (the highest achievable) from The Society of Thoracic Surgeons for lung lobectomy procedures for patients with early to stage III lung cancer. To see if a lung cancer screening is right for you, talk with your primary care physician or visit bapistjax.com/lungscreening.