LOS ANGELES (October 12, 1999) -- Thanks to state-of-the-art technology and some of the most advanced capabilities in the United States, brain surgery to remove pituitary tumors is now being done fully endoscopically and with outstanding results. Ken Baker, the San Francisco correspondent for PEOPLE Magazine, a former member of A U.S. Jr. Olympic Hockey Team, and a Division I college athlete who attended Colgate University on a hockey scholarship, had a nearly golf ball-sized pituitary tumor removed at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center's Skull Base Institute on July 8,1998.
On Dec. 5, 1999, slightly less than 17 months later, Baker, age 29, will do something he hasn't done since 1992. He will run a marathon. And not just any marathon. This is the California International Marathon in Sacramento, a qualifying run for the Boston Marathon. Baker is calling his run "The Tread for Head" and is using the marathon to increase awareness of pituitary tumors and to raise money for a special fund at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Skull Base Institute for those who can't afford tumor-removal surgery.
"Before the tumor, I would have been focusing on speeds and times," he says."Now I'll be happy just to finish. It's great to be alive!"
Baker, who had the undiagnosed tumor at the base of his brain for at least 10 years, describes the period from 1992 to 1998 (starting just after he ran the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington DC) as a "six-year blackhole."
A lifelong athlete, he then began experiencing severe headaches, had little strength and no stamina. "I could do hardly anything physical," he says. Although he had been planning to re-run the Marine Corps Marathon in 1994 and had paid entrance fees, he was too fatigued and abandoned training a few months before that race.
Then in October, 1997, after transferring to the Los Angeles bureau of PEOPLE, his tumor was diagnosed at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Medical intervention began, but it soon became apparent that Baker would need a highly specialized type of surgery to remove the benign tumor, which was secreting prolactin, a female hormone that suppressed his body's testosterone production. The results of the surgery, verged on spectacular. Three days after the operation, he went home, and a little over a week later -- free of his tumor and fortified with normal male hormonal levels for the first time in nearly 10 years -- he went roller-blading at the Santa Monica beach.
Baker, who recently signed a book deal with Tarcher/Putnam Books to chronicle his ordeal with the tumor, is now training four days per week on the scenic hills and bayside flats of Marin County, California. While his biggest reason for running this marathon is to prove to himself that "he's back," he has another reason that is equally important: "I want to give back," he says. "I've been given my life back, and now I'm determined to help others by raising money for the Skull Base Institute at Cedars-Sinai. I'm hoping that the funds I raise will help other patients who need this type of surgery, but may not have insurance or the means to pay for it. Life is so much better for me after the operation, that I'd like to send the elevator back up, as it were."
If you'd like to pursue this story, we can arrange interviews with Ken and with his skull base surgeon, Hrayr Shahinian, M.D., Director of the Skull Base Institute. We have (BETA) b-roll of this type of surgery, as well as still photos of it. Ken is also willing to work with you on a long-term basis if you would like to cover his training for the California Marathon.
Please contact Sandra Van via e-mail, sandy@vancommunications.com, or by calling 1-800-396-1002. Thank you.
News Hooks:
1. Medical Breakthroughs - Fully endoscopic micro-surgery puts a former Jr.
Olympic athlete back on the marathon trail. Cover this story starting now,
getting B-roll of Ken in training over the next two months, and culminating with
the California International Marathon on Dec. 5.
2. Excellent feature story for the holidays.
3. Sports angle (Jr. Olympic hockey team member, went to college on a hockey scholarship, ran previous marathons, now running another one.
4. Feature - The indomitable human spirit (he describes his 10 years with the tumor as a "black hole." Now he says he's back, running a marathon just 17 months after brain surgery.
5. News Twist - Ken is the San Francisco Correspondent for PEOPLE Magazine, accustomed to writing stories about other people's triumphs and tragedies. Now he's the subject of this story - writing from first-hand experience.
6. Local Angle (San Francisco Bay area) -- Ken is being trained by professional triathlete Kevin Joyce, 29, a resident of Mountain View. Joyce, who was Ken's college roommate, also inspires Baker. Joyce battles Epstein-Barr, a rare immune system disease, but he has not let it stop him from competing in Ironman Triathlons.
7. "First Person/My Experience. . ." articles -- As a professional journalist, Ken is willing to write a 'first person' article for your medium from the patient perspective.