News
Local resident donates $250,000 to build new infusion center at Emerson Hospital
(CONCORD, Mass., September 22, 2008)--Robert Naka, Sc.D., recently donated $250,000 to fund the new Patricia Neilon Naka Infusion Center, which will be located at Emerson Hospital’s main campus. The infusion center provides infusions of medications for cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, patients with blood disorders, patients requiring intravenous antibiotics, or individuals taking medications for pain management. Dr. Naka donated the funds in memory of his late wife of 56 years, Patricia, who received blood transfusions at Emerson for more than 15 years.
As part of Emerson Hospital’s initiative to improve cancer treatment facilities, the hospital will construct the new outpatient infusion room on the hospital’s connecting floor between the Bethke Cancer Center and the main building. This new facility will house six treatment areas and one private treatment room capable of accommodating a stretcher. With windows and skylights along its eastern exposure, this new outpatient infusion center will enjoy the benefits of natural light. The lighting and design elements will combine to create a more pleasant and soothing environment for patients undergoing treatments that often last several hours. The new outpatient infusion room will also offer additional clinical services that include IV medications for antibiotics, phlebotomy services, blood transfusions, injections for pre-cardiac surgery, and immunizations. The Center will provide patient education during and after infusions.
“We are so thankful to Dr. Naka for his generosity,” said Christine Schuster, Emerson Hospital president and CEO. “His gift will be meaningful to the many patients in our community who receive blood transfusions at Emerson. The new, state-of-the-art infusion center will be integral to the Bethke Cancer Center. Our goal is to provide cutting-edge care compassionately, and Dr. Naka’s gift will further that mission.”
In 1990, Patricia Naka was diagnosed with dysplastic anemia, a hematological condition characterized by ineffective production of blood cells that requires chronic blood transfusion. “At the time, she said to me that she had noticed that every time she became pregnant she became a bit anemic and wondered why,” said her husband, Robert Naka. “Now she knew. Pat was a patient at Emerson Hospital from that time on.”
Early on in her disease, Patricia Naka received blood transfusions every six or seven weeks. Fifteen years after her initial diagnosis, the transfusions alternated between two and three weeks apart. “For each transfusion, she had two units, and they took most of the day to infuse,” said Naka. “Dr. Susan Sajer and the Emerson nursing staff were very competent and kind.” Throughout her illness, her husband stayed until the infusion started and returned to drive his wife home. “In the early days, she was able to drive herself to the infusion and drive home, but I tried to be with her on most of the days,” he said.
For the Nakas, it is a love story that began many years ago, when Robert and Patricia met while they were both graduate students working on their master's degrees at the University of Minnesota, where she earned her master’s in child development and he earned his in electrical engineering. After earning her master’s in 1946, Patricia Naka, who was born in Minneapolis and raised in Virginia, worked at the Vince A. Day Center for troubled children. In 1947, she worked at the Child Guidance Clinic in Worcester and in 1948 she became a school psychologist at the Newton Public Schools as a registered clinical psychologist. In 1951, the Nakas moved to Lexington, Mass., where Patricia later became a psychologist in the Lexington schools.
The parents of four children, the Nakas had their first child shortly after Robert Naka received his Doctor of Science degree from Harvard University. The degree is earned with the approval of a committee on the basis of original research and publications and is awarded predominantly in doctoral-level science programs.
Robert Naka’s first job was with Project Lincoln at MIT, which is now Lincoln Laboratory. He led the team that developed the first automatic analog radar signal detection equipment, a task that was previously accomplished by people looking at radar scopes. Naka, who at age 18 was rounded up with 120,000 other Americans of Japanese descent and imprisoned in internment camps during World War II, was also chosen as one of three men to reduce the radar cross-section of the famous high-altitude spy plane, the U-2. They laid the groundwork for what has become known as “stealth technology.” He was deputy director of the National Reconnaissance Office, which was the secret spy satellite organization that the U.S. government would not admit existed. He also served six years in the U.S. Air Force, including three years as chief scientist.
For Robert Naka, the new infusion center will be a place of peace and healing. “My hope is that all patients requiring infusion will be able to be accommodated in a new center that will create an environment that is calming and soothing.”