06/16/2022
Here's a little background into why Infusion Solutions came to be. As you'll see, we're founded by two amazing people who have a passion for serving others well. They have built a team of us who all share the same values.
Here's a post from our co-founder, Lucien Roberts.
Infusion Solutions â Chapter One
The story of Infusion Solutions is one of two people drawn together to make things better, not knowing what they were doing but knowing they needed to do something.
My co-founder, Annette Bennett, is one of the most driven people I have ever knownâŠshe problem solves to relax. She is passionate at helping others and finding ways around obstacles. She had never met an insurmountable obstacle until her brother Daniel was diagnosed with late-stage colon cancer in 2016 at the age of 35. His three-year fight became her inspiration.
Tragically, like too many others, Daniel lost his valiant battle. All the kingâs horses and all the kingâs men werenât enough to save his life. With Annette by his side, Daniel sought the best care in the country, getting care in Virginia, Florida and seemingly everywhere in between.
Daniel got great careâŠbut had not-so-great experiences. His infusions, whether for chemotherapy or iron, were delivered in large âsick baysâ. He was separated from other patients by paper-thin curtains, with only a sterile metal tray as a companion. Privacy appeared to be an after-thought. Annette knew patients deserved better.
An aside: colon and re**al cancers are attacking younger people at a prevalence never seen before. Doctors donât know why â it is perhaps a function of a more sedentary lifestyle and a processed food diet. What we do know is that someone born in the 1990s like my children is twice as likely to get colon cancer and four times as likely to get re**al cancer as someone like me born in the early 1960s. Read that last sentence againâŠitâs scary.
Getting a screening colonoscopy is the very best way to detect and remove colon and re**al polyps before they become cancers.
If you know someone in their 30s with a family history of colon or re**al cancer or polyps, encourage them to get a colonoscopyâŠplease.
Everyone else should get a screening colonoscopy beginning at age 45âŠplease. I donât ask for much, but I make this simple request of every person reading this blog.
As Daniel was fighting his colon cancer, my dad was fighting his own battle with congestive heart failure, kidney disease, and everything else that comes with old age. Nobody wins the battle against old age, but Dad was determined. He wanted to be alive to care for Mom, his kids, and his grandkids.
On weekends, I would drive down to South Boston to be with him. I sat with him in hospitals, in skilled nursing, and in the end with hospice in his own bedroom. He was always cold, especially when he got an infusion or an IV. I would run up to the Walmart and get five dollar throws and electric blankets to ease his discomfort. They helped, especially the constant heat of the electric blanket.
Dad finally passed in August of 2020 at the age of 95. He was ready, at last, and we were blessed to have him die peacefully. He is in a better place, looking over us.
Although I have spent my career in healthcare, what struck me in Dadâs last year were two things: 1) the disconnect between his providers; and 2) the chill that he never seemed to shake. Like Annette, I knew patients deserved better.
Annette and I knew each other through our work â she as co-founder of Clinical Research Partners and me as chief administrator of Gastrointestinal Specialists â and we bonded as we talked during the last few months of Danielâs and Dadâs lives. We wanted to do something to honor their memories that helped others. And so, the seeds that grew into Infusion Solutions were planted.
Annette believed infusion patients deserved a more private and caring experience. I believed infusion patients deserved heated chairsâŠno one has ever accused me of being complex. We talked and decided there were two other things infusion patients needed. First, there needed to be much better communication with referring providers and families. Second, there needed to be an affordable alternative to hospitals.
We decided to take some of our savings to start a dream. It was scary, but our motive wasnât to make money. It was to give our community something our loved ones didnât get. If we broke even or lost a little money, that was okay. Helping others was it, plain and simple.
The COVID pandemic did its best to derail our dream, but we stayed true to our vision. We even set up a second suite just to provide monoclonal antibodies to COVID patients. And because our focus again was on caring for others rather than turning a profit, we succeeded. The dollars didnât matter as much as the sense it made. We helped others get the care Daniel and Dad didnât always get.
That, my friends, is how Infusion Solutions came to be. I hope â and I believe â we have made Daniel and Dad proud.
