Each week, the Shreveport-Bossier Journal’s Tony Taglavore takes to lunch a local person – someone who is well-known, successful, and/or influential, and asks, “What’s Your Story?”
By TONY TAGLAVORE, Journal Services
They didn’t just grow up together. They didn’t just go to school together. They were best friends. As kids, they played war games and backyard basketball. As college roommates, they barhopped. They hung out.
Eventually, the two went their separate ways. One to Alabama, one to Washington, D.C. But when the news hit the healthy one, it hit hard.
Sarcoma.
There were long distance phone calls. Many long-distance phone calls. They were usually at night, after a long day for both. The topic was heavy.
“I had conversations with him that I had never had with people before about life and death, and what his wishes were going to be. I became his confidante. We would talk about when you’re gone. When you die. To have conversations like that with somebody you’re close to, that helped me a lot in my future career.”
He gave his friend’s eulogy.
“Hard day. Hard day, but special. We squeezed a lot of friendship out of those few years.”
Dr. Lane Rosen, Radiation Oncologist and Medical Director of Radiation Oncology for the Willis Knighton Health System, told me that story, and his story, during lunch at a place of his choosing, Superior’s Steakhouse. Lane had two Crunchy Shrimp Rolls, and water. I enjoyed a bowl of Chicken and Sausage Gumbo, and water with lemon.
“I’ve lost several friends at a young age, which has been hard. Car accident, cancer, cancer, plane wreck, probable cancer. More friends lost than I would have liked.”
Those friends are among the reasons Lane loved growing up in Shreveport. They did it all together. Built forts. Shot BB guns. Lane collected comic books, and in high school (Loyola College Prep Class of 1984), was a manager for the basketball team. But between his junior and senior year, Lane took a trip that shaped his future.
“When I was 17, I went to Europe for the summer. That had a huge impact on my life . . . . It made me less shy. It allowed me to expand all my opportunities. I started thinking about college a lot more, and what I wanted to do with my career. I met people from all over the world on that trip.”
Lane was “a good student, but not a great student.” His father was a dentist, so Lane always thought he would follow his dad’s career path or go into accounting. “I was good at math.” But he was also good at science, chemistry, and biology. After three years at the University of Texas, and working in and around hospitals, Lane came back home to finish his undergraduate work at LSUS, then go to medical school.
“I had already decided medicine was for me because of the aptitude. I’m a people person. I’m a relatively empathetic person. I had a talent for science, so it seemed like a natural fit.”
Lane graduated and did his internship at LSU Health Science Center Shreveport. But he also had an interest in politics and world affairs. His junior and senior year of medical school, Lane was Student Government President. He served on the LSU Board of Supervisors for a year. He served as a governor appointee on the State Board of Regents.
Lane went to our nation’s capital for his residency at George Washington University Medical Center. From there, he likely could have worked in any big city, and at any well-known cancer facility. But Lane, who has an older sister, chose to come home. His parents, and the parents of his wife of 30 years (Maurie Patterson-Rosen, an internal medicine doctor), were here. Lane had been involved in Shreveport’s Jewish community. And then there was good ‘ol southern hospitality.
“I can remember coming back to Shreveport and stopping at a gas station. The lady behind the counter was like, ‘How are you today? It’s a beautiful day, isn’t it?’ I had forgotten how many years I had been up in D.C., where people were nice, but not like that. I liked growing up in Shreveport. I think we have very nice people here. I always loved the community.”
When it was time to focus on a specific area of medicine, the cancer death of Lane’s friend became Lane’s compass.
“I thought it taught me to be very honest. If there is a trait I have with my patients that is really unique, I am extremely honest. I tell them their prognosis very frankly. I deliver it in a good way, but I’m really honest about the side effects, treatment, cure rates, and our goals. I let them ask me anything they want. Our consults are like an hour and a half.”
There are good days – days when a patient’s cancer goes into remission. And there are bad days, when the 58-year-old delivers news no one wants to hear.
“I walk out of the room and have to go to my room for a minute and regroup, because it’s sad. But I always go home, even with that sadness, and feel like I did a service for somebody because I know I can do that well, and that they may not have gotten that from somebody else.”
Early in Lane’s career, the days and nights were long. He was basically building a cancer treatment center from the ground up.
“I got a Chevy Tahoe. I was working so much, I couldn’t’ even go look at the dealership. I had it delivered to the house, sight unseen, from Texarkana.”
All that work and all those hours took time away from his family. Speaking of time . . . .
“I would get home at 10 or 11 o’clock at night, every night. I wanted to eat dinner with my kids. We would make our kids stay up as little children, really small kids, and we would eat family dinner together, which I’m proud of.”
Late nights for the little ones meant often falling asleep in class the next day. But all’s well that ends well.
“My (three) kids are super smart. All three are National Merit Finalists, and all are very accomplished, thank God. (Having dinner together is) something I thought was very important for our family. I think it’s probably the single most important thing we did as a family almost all of my kids’ life.”
Lane deals with life and death every day, so I felt guilty keeping him as long as I did. I eventually asked my final question. As always, what is it about his life story that might be helpful to others?
“Don’t be constrained by the rules. If somebody says, ‘That’s not how we do it.’, it doesn’t mean you have to listen to that. I have never done anything in my career that people said you’re supposed to do. I would have never thought I would be a governor appointee. I would have never thought I would head up this department . . . . Don’t be constrained by what people say you can do. There’s no limit to what you can do.”
Including building a career to honor your late friend.
Do you know someone with a story? Email SBJTonyT@gmail.com.
The Journal’s weekly “What’s Your Story?” series is sponsored by Morris & Dewett Injury Lawyers.