16 Memorial Medical Milestones • 2026 Issue 1 When Doug Shearman looks back on his lung cancer journey, he doesn’t start with the diagnosis. He begins with the people who listened, reassured, explained and stayed beside him through every step. For him, that level of care wasn’t just clinical. It was personal. His relationship with his primary care provider, Brian Clements, MD, began decades ago. “He’s been more than a doctor,” Shearman says. “He’s been a really good friend, someone you can talk to.” That long-standing trust became the first link in a team that formed quickly once Shearman’s symptoms began in December 2023. A sudden, sharp pain under his left arm sent him to the Memorial emergency room at 3:30 a.m. Nurses moved quickly, working to provide relief and answers. “They were really nice,” he says. “They knew something was wrong but kept saying, ‘That pain is temporary. We’re going to get rid of it.’ And they did.” A few days later, Cliff Courville, MD, pulmonologist, delivered the diagnosis: stage III lung cancer. Soon after, medical oncologist Michael Broussard, MD, and radiation oncologist James Maze, MD, joined Shearman’s treatment team. But what Shearman talks about most isn’t the diagnosis or the medicine—it’s the way he was cared for. ‘A beautiful dance’ He affectionately calls Memorial’s infusion clinic “Room 215,” and the nurses there became central to his story. He describes the way they worked together as “a beautiful dance,” moving around one another with precision and instinct, never missing a detail. ‘It’s personal’ How individualized, empathetic care helped one patient through lung cancer treatment Members of the outpatient infusion clinic team with Doug Shearman.
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