Chapter 09: Memorable Volunteers and the “MD Anderson Annex”
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Description
Mrs. Harrison explains that her husband, a chemical engineer, volunteered in the radiology department and could be comforting to patients, in part, because of his technical understanding of radiology. Mrs. Harrison then recalls a woman who became a volunteer after undergoing an hemi-hipectomy and who continued to volunteer, even after her husband died.
Identifier
HarrisonK_02_20130607_C09
Publication Date
6-7-2013
City
Houston, Texas
Interview Session
Topics Covered
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center - An Institutional Unit; The Philanthropist/Volunteer; Professional Practice; The Professional at Work; Offering Care, Compassion, Help; MD Anderson History; Portraits; This is MD Anderson; Personal Reflections, Memories of MD Anderson; MD Anderson Past; Patients; Patients, Treatment, Survivors; Dedication to MD Anderson, to Patients, to Faculty/Staff; Offering Care, Compassion, Help
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Disciplines
History of Science, Technology, and Medicine | Oncology | Oral History
Transcript
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Okay, I realized I neglected to put the identifier on, because we actually started the recorder when we were in the process of talking. I just wanted to say that I'm Tacey Ann Rosolowski, and today is June 7th, 2013. I'm talking today with Mrs.
Karen Harrison:
. This is our second interview session together, and we’re at her home in Houston, Texas. We began the interview at approximately 1:07, just for that record, and right now it is almost a quarter of 2:00.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Now we have our business all done, and we can get back to it. You were going to talk about people you recruited.
Karen Harrison:
By profession, my husband was a chemical engineer, so he had an understanding of science things that I certainly did not have. He volunteered in the Radiation Department. People would be apprehensive, and A, he’d had it, and B, he knew all about it, so he would go and be very comforting to patients as they waited for their sessions.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Did they ask him technical questions too?
Karen Harrison:
If they knew enough to do it. He can speak either technically or otherwise, as a patient. He could speak both ways.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
And that’s really important. Have you seen a lot of people go through that? Are there a lot of volunteers who are patients? We don’t necessarily have to mention their names, for privacy reasons.
Karen Harrison:
Again, I cannot recall her name, but there was one really neat young woman that had had a hipectomy or something and was swinging around on crutches and volunteering. Her husband so wanted her to be able to have a prosthesis, and it was not happening easily and so forth. Well, ultimately, he was killed in a car wreck, and she kept on swinging through Anderson’s halls on her crutches and her one leg.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Maybe it even helped her to have the volunteering to go to. What a tragedy. Well, I can imagine that having the experience as a patient or being close to someone that has had that experience could really help you relate to someone who is going through that process. What other stories do you want to tell me about all of this experience over all these years of volunteering—it’s amazing—and working with MD Anderson?
Karen Harrison:
It was just a very important part of my life. I was with a young woman Wednesday night in another church. They were having a healing service, and she is driving patients to Anderson. Her husband had it in the last year. He died of cancer, but she was glad that she could do the driving and there were places there to go. I don’t know. First of all, I want you to realize that I am not trying to toot my horn. Please don’t think of it as that.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Would it be okay if I said that I think it’s really okay if you do, and I think you should? I think it would be worth it, because you've done so much for the institution. But I understand why you're saying what you're saying. I do. But I really admire what you've done.
Recommended Citation
Harrison, Karen K. and Rosolowski, Tacey A. PhD, "Chapter 09: Memorable Volunteers and the “MD Anderson Annex”" (2013). Interview Chapters. 880.
https://openworks.mdanderson.org/mchv_interviewchapters/880
Conditions Governing Access
Open
