Deb Gates
Running in memory of Stephen A. Gates, MD
This is Deb's story, as she shared it with the National Leiomyosarcoma Foundation.
Nearly thirty years of survivorship
On Christmas Eve 1997, Deb Gates was diagnosed with uterine leiomyosarcoma after a hysterectomy with morcellation. She has since faced melanomas and nine surgeries, and she has received care at Memorial Sloan Kettering.
Deb says she is the longest uterine leiomyosarcoma survivor in the world, 30 years out. The foundation shares that as her own statement.
Running in his memory
Her husband, Stephen A. Gates, MD, died on July 22, 2006, at age 53. Deb says the Seattle Marathon on November 30, 2007 — his birthday — turned her toward life. She went on to triathlons, relays, and rides, always running in his memory with a banner.
Hospital safety advocacy
Deb says she successfully advocated for Washington State to adopt national hospital safety construction standards in 2008, with more in 2010, including emergency pull cords in hospital bathrooms. She says she is now advocating at the federal level.
Her advocacy is also on the public record. In a Washington State Department of Health comment report, Deborah W. Gates proposed emergency assistance systems in hospital toilets, and she wrote that the department adopted a 2006 Facility Guidelines Institute standard for hospital toilets after formal comments she submitted in March 2008. In 2010, Washington adopted most of the 2010 Guidelines for Design and Construction of Health Care Facilities. That text encourages hospitals to install assistance systems in public and staff toilets when they build or renovate.
With thanks
Deb thanks the LMS advocacy community and fellow patients.
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Story shared with NLMSF. This page does not track a separate fundraising total.