VIDEO: Tyler Holmes Memorial Hospital Receives New Equipment

WINONA, Miss. (WCBI) – Health care professionals at a Winona hospital are raising breast cancer awareness with new technology.

This is breast cancer awareness month and it’s crucial to have the life saving tools available to doctors and patients.

Having access to healthcare can save lives. Tyler Holmes Memorial Hospital has technology to help catch cancer sooner and closer to home.

“The closest mammo to us is about 35 miles from here and, believe it or not, people have a hard time getting there,” said  Clinic Director Kim Timbs.

Recently the hospital received a new state of the art Mammogram Machine.

“When it all came about, Mrs. Lydia Chassaniol, our senator for this area she discovered that we didn’t have mammo in this area. She was having to go out of town to get that done. She made some phone calls and decided we needed to have that. Chris Pope, with North Mississippi Planning and Development got involved and the grant process began,” said Timbs.

It took about 16 months to get the digital Mammogram Machine.

Radiology Director Celia Graham says after seeing the benefits to the community, it was worth the wait.

“Hospitals our size don’t always have the ability to be able to buy especially one as nice as ours, and I can already see for the short two weeks we’ve been operation that the interest that people are giving us the community is behind us and will utilize us,” said Graham.

Graham says though her department can administer a mammogram, some training was required.

“Every machine, though they do the same thing, has their own way about doing things. We had a lady who came in, a specialist, and was here for three days and that taught us all the ins and outs,” said Graham.

More than anything, these medical professionals are happy people can get care close to home.

“Breast cancer is prevalent in our area and in our country. One in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year, our hospital has been greatly impacted most recently. We are honored that we are able to actually provide something that possibly can detect this and hopefully find a cure one day,” said Timbs.