Cancerwise

As an emergency physician who comes from a family of health care workers, Derek Cooney, M.D., has dealt with his share of challenging situations. But he says he never could have prepared for receiving a stage 4 stomach cancer diagnosis at age 48.

“It was pretty devastating,” Derek says of his diagnosis. “After I got over the initial shock, then anger, I immediately thought, ‘Thank God it’s not my wife or kids.’”