A Special Bond: Two Docs Making TMH a Breast Cancer Destination
September 18, 2024
By: Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare
Categories: Breast Cancer, Cancer Care, Healthy Living, TMH Physician Partners
Breast cancer is the most common diagnosis at the Tallahassee Memorial Cancer Center, where the region’s top specialists treat more than 1,600 women newly diagnosed each year.
Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare (TMH), home to the Walker Breast Program and the region’s only multidisciplinary Breast Clinic, has implemented a model of care like that found at nationally recognized cancer centers, allowing more women in the Big Bend to receive care close to home.
The Program recently got a boost with the addition of the region’s only fellowship-trained breast surgical oncologist, Shlermine “Shea” Everidge, MD, who joined the Tallahassee Memorial Cancer Center and TMH Physician Partners – General Surgery in September.
Dr. Everidge trained as a fellow at the prestigious MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, but what’s truly extraordinary about her is her commitment to Tallahassee, Florida State University and TMH, where she built the early stages of her career.
Dr. Everidge planted roots in Tallahassee during her time as a Florida State University General Surgery Resident at TMH. It was also during her residency that she met the woman who would become her mentor, Shelby Blank, MD, a surgeon at TMH for more than 20 years.
Today, the two women are working side by side and have a special bond focused on providing the most advanced care for breast cancer here in Tallahassee.
Drs. Everidge and Blank first got to know each other when Dr. Everidge was a resident at TMH, where she faced the rigors and teaching moments that go with being a surgeon at the region’s only Level II Trauma Center.
On July 2, 2016, her second day as a resident, Dr. Everidge found herself working with Dr. Blank and a team of surgeons on treating more than a dozen Haitian migrant farm workers who were badly injured after their bus collided with a semi-truck in Wakulla County.
Many of the victims were critically injured and did not speak English.
Amid a chaotic scene, Dr. Blank looked around at her colleagues and asked if anyone spoke Creole. A South Florida native, Dr. Everidge is fluent in Haitian Creole and offered to help.
Having someone to translate quickly gave Dr. Blank a better understanding of the severity of the patients’ injuries, allowing her to triage them.
“Even as a very inexperienced resident, she stepped up to the plate,” Dr. Blank said of Dr. Everidge. “I saw early on that she was engaged, reliable, sharp and had great common sense, as well as a great medical sense.” Success is something that’s been engrained in Dr. Everidge from a young age.
Her mother, a Haitian immigrant, pushed her toward a remarkable career.
"To my mom, being successful meant you had to go to college and you had to become a doctor, a lawyer or a teacher,” Dr. Everidge said.
Throughout college, she considered orthopedics or endocrinology before landing on general surgery. During residency, she began to gravitate toward breast surgery, a specialty area of her mentor, Dr. Blank.
“Some people are born teachers,” Dr. Everidge said, “and some people have to be taught how to teach. Dr. Blank was born a teacher. I probably operated with her more than any attending physician at TMH.” Dr. Everidge found her niche and began applying for fellowships. In 2022, she matched with the one-year Breast Surgical Oncology Fellowship at the prestigious MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas.
"Matching at any fellowship is an accomplishment,” Dr. Blank said, “but to have someone match at MD Anderson is huge. Everyone who applies to these fellowships are, on paper, great candidates. But these programs are looking for someone who has that extra something, and Dr. Everidge has that.”
MD Anderson’s fellowship programs train young physicians to be leaders in cancer treatment and research. Dr. Everidge is only the third physician from Florida and the first since 2005 to complete the specialized program.
After graduating, Dr. Everidge returned to Tallahassee in September 2023 where she went back to work alongside Dr. Blank.
Dr. Everidge says one of the things she learned at MD Anderson was Tallahassee Memorial Cancer Center’s approach to breast cancer care is on par with nationally recognized cancer centers.
“I was learning the ‘why’ behind a lot of what we do here,” she said. “It also helped me tie the research that’s available into practice, as well as look at literature more critically and apply that to my clinical practice.”
Dr. Everidge was training under Dr. Blank when TMH began the pilot program that would become today’s Walker Breast Program. The program expedites breast cancer treatment, reducing the time it takes a patient to get from diagnosis to surgery, chemotherapy or radiation therapy.
The program also makes breast cancer treatment more cohesive – bringing together multiple services under one roof, without the need for patients to travel to multiple locations for treatment. The Breast Clinic at the Cancer Center brings physicians and specialists together on a weekly basis to review each patient’s case.
Now, with a three-person team of talented surgeons within the Walker Breast Program, Big Bend residents can receive “big-city care” at home. Dr. Everidge also works alongside Brett Howard, MD, General Surgeon at TMH, who with Dr. Blank, has been growing the Walker Breast Program for several years.
As for Dr. Everidge, she’s excited to use the knowledge and training she received through her fellowship to continue the program’s development.
Anna Chesnut, 74, was the first patient Dr. Everidge treated after returning to TMH.
“For weeks I was scared and nervous because I had never had a diagnosis like this,” Chesnut said. “[Dr. Everidge] walked in to shake my hand, and I wanted to hug her. From the minute I met her, she was very warm, welcoming, and her priority was me. We’re blessed to have someone like Dr. Everidge and her skills in our community.”
Learn more about Dr. Everidge, at TMH.ORG/MeetDrEveridge.
To learn more about comprehensive breast cancer care, visit TMH.ORG/WalkerBreastProgram.
And to schedule your mammogram, visit TMH.ORG/Mammogram.
