She's a 'Cancer Warrior' - Dr. Jacquelyn Wiermaa brings children's cancer treatment to the region

It was the most surreal journey of Kerri Chilcote’s life, that 5-minute walk through the corridors and skyways of the SMDC Health System’s downtown Duluth campus – but a warrior was awaiting her at the end of it.

Chilcote’s six month-old daughter, Gwen, was about to be diagnosed with neuroblastoma, a type of tumor that develops in the nerve tissue of

infants and children. Less than 1,000 new cases of neuroblastoma are diagnosed in the United States each year.

With trepidation Chilcote and her husband, Craig, met Duluth’s first pediatric oncologist, Dr. Jacquelyn Wiermaa. Gwen’s physician walked

the parents to meet the cancer expert late in the afternoon on the Friday before Memorial Day weekend, when the Chilcotes hadn’t expected to find many specialists working.

“But there she was, this quiet, petite blond woman, looking like she was a couple years younger than us,” Kerri Chilcote says. That’s how they met the physician who would be with them for the next two years while they fought Gwen’s cancer as a team. The Duluth couple first knew Wiermaa as a doctor – but as the months progressed, Kerri Chilcote began to think of her, as well as her colleague Dr. Andrea Watson, a little differently.

“I’ve called them my ‘cancer warriors,’ ” Chilcote says.

Lightening the load

Wiermaa came to Duluth in 2002, before there was a pediatric oncology center anywhere north of the Twin Cities. When she joined the SMDC system, Wiermaa thought there was a great enough need in the area to pursue opening a local cancer center for children, so she pushed to begin one.

“It’s a burden” for families to have to travel long distances to get the

care their children need, she says. Until the Erick Peter Person Children’s Cancer Center opened at the SMDC Cancer Center, families had

to go to the Twin Cities or Rochester for their children’s cancers to be

treated.

The field is “academically challenging and intellectually stimulating,” Wiermaa says. “And it’s always very rewarding.” Treating pediatric cancer is much different than treating adult cancers, Wiermaa says, and children are more likely to develop long-term side effects from cancer treatment. While many children’s cancers are highly curable, it’s crucial to begin treatment as quickly as possible because many of these types of cancers are very aggressive.

Wiermaa says she encourages her patients’ families to enroll them in clinical research trials; partly because there aren’t huge numbers of new pediatric cancer patients in the country, and partly so they can have access to all available treatments, some of which are still experimental.

And because she treats such young patients – from newborn infants to young adults – Wiermaa and her colleagues take time to develop a trusting bond with their families.

“It’s really family-centered,” Wiermaa says. “We spend a lot of time with families; we’re treating the whole family, not just the children.”

The pediatric oncology center opened with Wiermaa working basically on her own. Today, there are a dozen doctors and therapists working there, including a part-time child psychologist, a part-time social worker

and a school liaison. The center sees about 15 new pediatric patients each year.

A typical office visit takes one to two hours, Wiermaa says. The center works closely with the Children’s Oncology Group, the world’s largest pediatric cancer research collaborative, to give patients access to research discoveries and groundbreaking clinical trials. The

collaborative has advanced treatment outcomes in important areas.

When she’s not working or raising her two sons – 7-year-old Julien and Matthew, almost 2 – Wiermaa and her husband enjoy outdoors activities. They also like to fly their Cessna 182 to new places; the family recently stopped in Cody, Wyo. for a quick vacation. Though Wiermaa has her pilot’s

license, she prefers to navigate.

‘Let me worry’

But Wiermaa is never out of the office for very long. Chilcote remembers

the comfort of knowing that advice from Gwen’s doctor was just a phone

call away. She remembers how Wiermaa listened to Chilcote’s suggestions for Gwen’s care – even if Wiermaa didn’t agree with them.

And, Chilcote says, she remembers hearing “horror stories,” from parents of children with cancer at regional conferences about other doctors and about feeling like their child was just a number in the medical system.

But not only was Wiermaa a good listener, she was empathetic. “Jackie would say, ‘Tonight, why don’t you let me worry,’ ” Chilcote remembers. “That was a gift. Those were the nights I actually slept. I’ve never met another physician that would say that.”

Gwen has been cancer-free for two years. She looks and acts much like any other 3-year-old, except, perhaps, when she’s playing with her dolls.

She doesn’t pretend to take them to the movies or the grocery store. Her dolls get to play at going to visit Gwen’s favorite doctor, Chilcote says – Dr. Wiermaa.