MedStar Lends a Pink-Covered Hand to Fight Breast Cancer While Protecting Workers from Infectious Diseases
October 1, 2019 (Fort Worth, Texas) Maintaining “Universal Precautions” for body substance isolation is paramount in protecting EMS workers from exposure to infectious diseases. For the 7th year in a row, MedStar’s EMTs and Paramedics will be donning pink gloves to support breast cancer awareness, and raise money for the cause.
bout 1 in 8 women born today in the United States will get breast cancer at some point in their lives.
Healthcare supply company, Bound Tree Medical, donates a portion of the proceeds from the sale of the gloves to support breast cancer awareness through education resources, access to free mammograms and support services.
“The color really stands out,” said Shannon Rucker, MedStar Paramedic. “My wife is a breast cancer survivor and she looks forward to seeing the pink gloves every year. Hopefully this will encourage people to think about breast cancer and talk to their doctors; and it’s nice to be able to recognize those who have fought the disease, especially those we have lost,” she added.
Next to skin cancer, breast cancer is the most common cancer type found in women in the United States. In 2019, an estimated 268,600 new cases of breast cancer are expected to be diagnosed in women in the U.S., and an estimated 41,760 women are expected to die from the disease in 2019. But it’s not just women. About 2,760 new cases of breast cancer are expected to be diagnosed in men in 2019. A man’s lifetime risk of breast cancer is about 1 in 883.
Early detection is the key to positive outcomes.
In the beginning of the development process, breast cancer is too small to feel and does not cause signs and symptoms that are easily detected by the naked eye or to the touch. As it progresses and grows however, breast cancer can cause changes in how the breasts look or feel.
Symptoms to watch out for include:
- A new lump in the breast or underarm (armpit)
- Thickening or swelling of part of the breast
- Irritation or dimpling of breast skin
- Redness or flaky skin in the nipple area or the breast
- Pulling in of the nipple or pain in the nipple area
- Nipple discharge other than breast milk, including blood
- Any change in the size or the shape of the breast
- Pain in any area of the breast
Regular mammograms are the best tools doctors have found in discovering breast cancer early in its stage. Sometimes mammograms can detect the cancer up to three years before it can be felt. When breast cancer is found in its early stages and treated appropriately, many women have the opportunity to go on to living long and healthy lives.
About MedStar:
Responding to over 155,000 calls each year, MedStar Mobile Healthcare is a regional governmental administrative agency providing exclusive emergency and non-emergency ambulance services to over 1 million residents throughout Fort Worth and 14 other Tarrant County cities. Established in 1986, MedStar is governed by the Metropolitan Area EMS Authority board of directors, and is accredited by both the Commission on the Accreditation of Ambulance Services (CAAS) and the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch. MedStar is the only agency to be recognized as an EMS 10 Innovator by JEMS Magazine. MedStar also received the Paid EMS Provider of the Year by EMS World Magazine and the National Association of EMTs in 2013.
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https://www.breastcancer.org/symptoms/understand_bc/statistics
