Traverse City Record-Eagle

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DOUG TESNER VISITATION SCHEDULE

A visitation for Record-Eagle photographer Doug Tesner is scheduled for 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday at Reynolds-Jonkhoff Funeral Home, 305 Sixth St. in Traverse City.

Funeral services will be held at 6 p.m. Friday at the funeral home, with a visitation beginning at 4 p.m. The Rev. Gerald Micketti, of Christ the King Catholic Church in Williamsburg, will officiate.

Life In Focus: A photographer's journey

EDITORS NOTE: Record-Eagle photojournalist Doug Tesner was sick, badly so. A lifelong smoker, Tesner, 64, battled lung cancer that spread to his lymph nodes. His outlook was bleak, and he was in Munson Medical Center for treatment. Tesner and his wife, Peggy, agreed to allow Record-Eagle reporter Lindsay VanHulle and photojournalist Jan-Michael Stump to follow their journey, document his life and examine an illness that each year claims about 160,000 lives in this country.

"Patient awaits cancer's toll" is the first in this series. Other articles:

Related Photos

  • Peggy Tesner, left, leaves Munson Medical Center with Nancy Taylor after Peggy's husband, Doug Tesner, died Tuesday morning. Record-Eagle/Jan-MIchael Stump

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  • Peggy Tesner takes a moment with Doug Tesner's son, Patrick Tesner, after Doug died Tuesday. Record-Eagle/Jan-MIchael Stump

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  • Peggy Tesner carries a bag with the quilt from Doug's bed -- which she made for him years ago -- as she leaves Munson Medical Center after Doug Tesner Tuesday. Record-Eagle/Jan-MIchael Stump

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  • Douglas Tesner enjoyed capturing photographs of gulls, including this one in the parking lot of the Elk Rapids Marina. Record-Eagle file photo/Douglas Tesner

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June 30, 2010

Tesner's struggle draws to a close

BY LINDSAY VANHULLE lvanhulle@record-eagle.com

TRAVERSE CITY — Peggy Tesner occasionally walked the fourth-floor corridor at Munson Medical Center, where her husband was a cancer patient, for a change of scenery.

To make a phone call. To clear her head.

She didn't want to be far from Doug Tesner's room. Peggy sometimes went home to shower or change clothes, but family members recently began to cart fresh outfits to the hospital.

They knew he didn't have much time left.

She was with him Tuesday morning when his struggle ended, and she is relieved her husband of nearly 16 years no longer feels pain.

Douglas Paul Tesner, a Record-Eagle photographer since 2004, died at 8 a.m. Tuesday after a four-month battle with lung cancer. He was 64.

Tesner had been a patient at Munson since June 16.

Family and friends gathered in his room to pay their respects — a nurse said they could stay as long as they needed — and Peggy asked for one last moment alone.

"I'm not going to say goodbye," she said. "I told him last night he's with me, and he always will be."

Tesner was diagnosed with adenocarcinoma, a type of lung cancer, after he went to a downstate hospital in late February. His illness was classified as Stage IV when doctors learned it spread from his lower-right lung to the rest of the organ and his lymph nodes.

Surgeons unsuccessfully tried to remove the cancer in May. Tesner started radiation therapy last week but over the weekend decided to end all further treatments. His condition rapidly deteriorated.

Doctors believe smoking likely caused his cancer. Tesner picked up the habit as a teenager and was a heavy smoker for nearly half a century. The American Cancer Society describes lung cancer as the type easiest to prevent.

Tesner and his wife agreed to allow the Record-Eagle to chronicle his life and treatment as a way to bring awareness to the illness.

He recently quit smoking for more than a year. A statewide survey of health risk behaviors showed the percentage of current smokers in Michigan dropped from 23.4 percent in 2004 to an estimated 19.8 percent in 2009.

In general, there appear to be "greater efforts to reduce smoking," said Bill Crawford, health officer with the Benzie-Leelanau District Health Department.

He cited increased cigarette taxes, a statewide smoking ban and publicized health risks as reasons someone could quit.

Tesner's quick decline after surgery is not necessarily uncommon, given the amount of cancerous tissue he had, but it still seemed surprising, said Dr. John Gorman, who practices internal medicine and pediatrics in Traverse City.

He first treated Tesner in April.

"That's why it's difficult to make predictions for family about the amount of time left," Gorman said.

In his last days, Tesner was given hydromorphone, a medication that can relieve pain and calm a patient's breathing and heart rate.

Gorman called it "comfort care."

Medical workers, too, have a hard time dealing with death.

"If we didn't feel sadness ourselves, we'd be losing some of our humanity," Gorman said. "Even though I didn't know Doug very long, he was a very spirited man.

"Some patients kind of touch your life in unique ways."

That was Tesner.

He spent 22 years as a Navy helicopter mechanic and photographer before starting a career in newspapers. He enrolled in a journalism program for military service members through Syracuse University.

Tesner was a "spot news fanatic" who cared deeply about both the craft and his country, Record-Eagle Editor Bill Thomas said.

What he lacked in formal education or training, Tesner made up for in passion and commitment, Thomas said.

"That's the hallmark of a good journalist," he said. "There were times when I got so concerned about him because he never knew when to quit working."

Kathy Radakovich, a first-grade teacher at Traverse City's Eastern Elementary, remembers when Tesner photographed her class cleaning outside the school for Earth Day this spring.

Problem was, there wasn't much trash on the playground.

"Doug was trying so hard to get candid shots," Radakovich said. "It was just a comedy of errors."

Tesner later went to her classroom and asked the students to show him their projects. The children were excited he was interested.

"The briefest encounters, he tried to make others feel special," she said. "He was really a neat person."

Peggy's daughter, Laurie, and granddaughter were to arrive Tuesday. Her son, Jim, should arrive today.

Tesner's son, Patrick, and his niece and nephew, Nancy and Bob Taylor, helped Peggy pack belongings in plastic bags.

Peggy said keeping busy would help. She reached for Tesner's slippers underneath his hospital bed and began to cry. It had taken several tries before she'd found a pair that fit. Patrick reached to comfort her.

"I'm just so glad he's at peace," she said of Tesner.

After they left his room, Nancy Taylor rested her arm on Peggy's shoulder. The women walked together like that, down the hall and into the sunshine.

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