CELEBRATING SURVIVORS DAY; GLENDALE HOSPITAL PUTS FOCUS ON LIFE'S GIFT.

Byline: Peter Hartlaub Daily News Staff Writer

For the past few months, the public has been focusing on deaths at the Glendale Adventist Medical Center.

But for a few cherished hours Sunday, a group of hospital employees were able to turn the focus toward life, as dozens of nurses, cancer patients and their families gathered for National Cancer Survivors Day.

Cindy Smith, Glendale Adventist's oncology care coordinator, led a tree-planting ceremony in the hospital's Anniversary Garden, where everyone from the children of breast cancer survivors to patients in wheelchairs took turns shoveling soil around a 5-foot sapling.

``I think if people saw the heroic struggle cancer survivors go through they would honor patients every day of the year,'' Smith said.

Joanna Wesler, a Glendale resident who has been fighting breast cancer since October, smiled a lot as she chatted with fellow patients and employees from the hospital, which handles more than 500 cancer patients per year.

``From the second you get the cancer diagnosis, you're different forever in the eyes of everyone,'' Wesler said. ``It's very helpful to meet with people who are going through the same thing to see that you're not alone.''

National Cancer Survivors Day, stressing the success stories that come out of cancer wards, is being celebrated in hundreds of hospitals throughout the United States.

But the positive event may have meant the most for Glendale Adventist, which has weathered negative attention on a national level ever since it was reported that respiratory technician Efren Saldivar claimed to police that he killed as many as 50 terminally ill patients at the hospital.

``It was so hard when all of the other stuff came out because there are so many good and caring people at this hospital,'' Smith said.

The tree was planted with the help of current and former cancer patients, their family and friends, and a few patients from the hospital who don't have the disease but wanted to show support anyway.

At Glendale's sister hospital in Simi Valley, officials honored cancer survivors with the unveiling of Memory Bridge, a monument in the park-like setting next to the oncology institute.

``A diagnosis of cancer today does not mean what it used to mean - an almost certain demise,'' said Alan Rice, president of Simi Valley Hospital. ``So what we're seeing here is the cancer survivor community getting organized.''

In Glendale, Wesler talked about her own efforts to get organized - the 46-year-old says she has seen a lot of mental healing since she put together a local support group for breast cancer patients.

Daily News Staff Writer Don Holland contributed to this story.

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2 Photos

Photo: (1) Glendale Adventist Medical Center patient Etheleen Harris, left, gets some tree-planting help Sunday from volunteer Raymond Idell.

(2) Cancer survivor Ginger Smedley, left, chats with Annabelle Phillip in Glendale.

Myung J. Chun/Daily News