TV Special Highlights SLUCare Liver Center's Life-Saving Work
Naomi Judd is best known for her award-winning, decades-long musical career. However, when stricken with hepatitis C, Judd, like other patients from across the country, turned to SLUCare's Liver Center for help.
Tomorrow night, KMOV-TV Ch. 4 follows the center's pioneering physician researchers as they care for patients like Judd while tackling the challenge of a new liver virus that's sweeping through the nation. The special will air at 6:30 p.m. on channel 4 locally. The piece features interviews with SLUCare liver specialists Adrian Di Bisceglie, M.D., chair of internal medicine, School of Medicine; Bruce Bacon, M.D., SLU professor of internal medicine; and Brent Tetri, M.D., director of the School of Medicine's Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology and professor of internal medicine.
Judd turned to SLUCare after feeling unwell with headaches , fatigue and a low-grade fever. Diagnosed with hepatitis C in 1991, she remembers seeing a biopsy slide of her liver and the fear that accompanied it.
"It actually looked to me like, with my informed eyes, that I was going to die," Judd recalled.
But, thanks to the treatment she received from SLU's Liver Center, she has gone on to enjoy twenty more years of music and success. She has also become the namesake of the Naomi Judd Award, which is given annually by The Friends of the Saint Louis University Liver Center. Tetri, Bacon and Di Bisceglie have all received the award.
The Saint Louis University Liver Center was designated a center of excellence in December 2001 with institutional monies derived from the SLU2000 Center of Excellence Award. The Liver Center enjoys worldwide recognition as a center of excellence for research and treatment of liver diseases and liver cancer. The Liver Center is committed to excellence in quality care, basic and clinical research and medical and public education. Designation as a center of excellence brings together all the clinical and research resources of Saint Louis University and SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital to help diagnose, treat, cure and educate the public about liver diseases.
Providing national leadership in the field of hepatology, the Liver Center is staffed by some of the highest-profile doctors and research scientists in the nation. Many are named in the Best Doctors, Inc. database, an independent medical reference service. The liver specialists in the division of gastroenterology and hepatology see more than 1,200 patients per month with various types of liver diseases. These physicians have one of the world’s largest hepatitis C practices in the world, treating more than 2,000 patients annually.
–Video by KMOV-TV Ch. 4