Susan Bradsher began working at Wake Radiology in 1985. After a break while her children were young, she returned to Wake Radiology in 2007. When 3D mammography was introduced in 2013, her boss, Kim Morris, suggested she try it. Susan was 49 years old and healthy. It had been two years since her last mammogram. A couple of days later, she received a call back. The 3D technology had allowed doctors to detect a tiny spot. 
She then had a diagnostic mammogram and a MRI. After a biopsy she was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer. “I am so thankful my boss encouraged me to get that 3D mammogram,” Susan said, “We don’t think it would have been found on a normal mammogram.” Wake Radiologist Richard J. Max read Susan’s mammogram and performed the biopsy. He quickly referred her to surgeon for a lumpectomy and to an oncologist. Susan continued, “Of course, I was stunned, but they caught it before it got to my lymph nodes. Wake Radiology had my back the whole way.” Described as the “rock of the family,” Susan and her husband had just celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary when she was diagnosed. Her husband, along with their children, now 25 and 19, are extremely thankful for the outstanding care she received. Susan continued, “I believe we go through things like this for the people who come behind us. I bring a whole different perspective to my work now. I have walked the road some of our patients are about to go down. It is more than a job now, it is a calling.” Susan thinks often about a dear colleague at Wake Radiology, Teresa Coward, who died of ovarian cancer in June, 2013. A portrait of Coward hangs in her oncologist’s office. “It is hard to lose someone to cancer,” Susan said, “I was lucky. I thank God for Wake Radiology—our staff and physicians. They saved my life.”
One of Our Own: Susan Bradsher
