OMRF Stories

Higher Powers:
How 1,100 nuns, priests and brothers are helping OMRF researchers unlock the secrets of Alzheimer's.

Cooties in the Lab:
Whither the White Lab Coat?

Going With the Flow:
Dr. Margaret Clarke, OMRF Microbiologist.

Research Tower:
OMRF unveils the greenprint for a historic campus expansion.

Meagan's Miracle:
An OMRF discovery saves a dying college student.

Lessons In Philanthropy:
Putnam City School students learn early that giving to OMRF’s cancer research efforts is a good thing.

Prayers Answered:
Two Oklahomans suffering from a rare, life-threatening disease.

The Giver:
Jim Chapman’s generosity helped make OMRF what it is today.

Cancer From Every Angle:
OMRF researchers seeking clues to a variety of cancers.

Next of Kin:
It doesn't matter if you're a banana, fruit fly or writer; DNA is inside all your cells. Join OMRF's Greg
Elwell as he peels back his own genetic skin

The Strange Case of Tom Little
The Strange Case of Tom Little

The Comeback Kid:
An OMRF Discovery helped bring Rayna Dubose back from death, then Rayna had to learn to live again

Mighty Mice
Mighty Mice

Predicting Disease:
Live, Long and Prosper

This Is My Brain on 3-Tesla MRI

Autism: A Personal Story
Bringing up Jeremy

OMRF People
Bon Appetit

A New Birthday

Hitting the Right Note: Bob Floyd

Running Man: Gary Gorbsky

Family Matters: Kathy Moser

The Gospel According to Luke (Szweda)

Autism, Our Story

The Survivor

It's In The Genes

By Shari Hawkins

It was windy that Thursday in November—the kind of swirling wind Oklahoma is famous for. Shrubs whipped back and forth. Leaves somersaulted across the portico of the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation. Huguette White moved nimbly across the stone porch, her long hair flying behind her. No matter that she walked on a single leg and a pair of crutches. Just inside the door, she clasped her hands over her heart and closed her eyes. “Oh, I feel like I’m home.”

Growing pains. That’s what the doctor called the ache above Huguette’s knee. The throbbing persisted, sapping the 15-year-old’s energy and limiting her movement, but still her doctor seemed unconcerned. After eight months, when Huguette no longer could lift her leg, her parents consulted a second physician. He diagnosed her “growing pains” as cancer: Ewing’s sarcoma, a rare and deadly cancer of the bone that typically strikes adolescents and can spread quickly. Your chances of survival, he said, are not good.

Huguette and her family were not prepared to give up so easily. She and her mother flew from their native Lebanon to OMRF’s research hospital. The year was 1954, and even though OMRF was internationally recognized for its work on childhood cancers, she nevertheless had reason to fear the worst: 53 years ago, few victims of Ewing’s sarcoma, in Lebanon or elsewhere, survived. The language barrier—Huguette spoke no English, only Arabic and French—only added to her apprehension about this unfamiliar place half a world from home.

Hugh Payne, OMRF’s general manager, made it his mission to comfort OMRF’s new patient. He knew that Huguette’s treatment would be harsh; the cancer had grown unchecked for the better part of a year, and surgeons deemed amputation the only way to save her life.

Payne delivered the news himself. When he told Huguette, translating through her mother, both women broke down sobbing. The teen had never heard of amputation, but Payne assured her that it would save her life. He also explained that her leg would be used for research, to help save other young people just like her. She dried her eyes. “If it’s going to help people, okay.”

The night before the operation, Payne stayed up with Huguette until the wee hours, reading to her from the Bible. The next morning, he presented her with her first corsage, a gardenia.

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