Gilbert man cares for wife, battles lung cancer - Hometown Focus

Dave and Sue Tibbetts are pictured here. The couple, who lives in Gilbert, has battled health issues; Sue had a lung transplant in 2014, while Dave was recently diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer. Photo courtesy of Farmers Independent.

In 1966 Dave Tibbetts graduated from Bagley (MN) High School. His next chapters included war in Vietnam, marriage to Susie, kids and a career on the Iron Range. After raising his family and seeing them all start their adult lives, he and Susie decided to return in 2007 to live in the area around Lake Itasca.

While at Itasca Township, Dave worked here and there while still collecting his pension from the Inland Steel mill, which he helped to build as a carpenter and foreman with Bechtel Corp. Immediately after the mill was complete he went to work as a millwright, carpenter, production truck driver and other jobs for Inland Steel, which later was sold to Arcelor Mittal.

When they moved from their home in Aurora to Itasca, Susie was suffering from a lung disease. In2014 she received a lung transplant. Complications following the transplant placed her upon death’s door many times. Dave tended to her and raced her to hospitals quite a number of times before her ailments were brought under control with medications. Still today an independent life eludes her, and Dave remains as her dedicated assistant.

The Tibbettses moved late this summer from their place near Lake Itasca to return to the Iron Range at Gilbert, not far from where they once lived and near where Susie once owned and operated a beauty salon in Hoyt Lakes.

They had barely moved into their new home at Gilbert when another cloud of lung disease cast its shadow over the Tibbetts household. Dave had developed a nagging cough and decided to see a doctor about it. The doctor believed he had pneumonia, but she referred him to see doctors at St. Luke’s Hospital in Duluth. That was in September. Dave learned that a biopsy and PETscan showed he had stage 4 lung cancer. The cancer known as adenocarcinoma is in both lungs and spread to his middle and lower spine. It is not uncommon in smokers, and Dave is a former smoker.

“The doctors say it is incurable, but they don’t know my God,” said Dave.

Tibbetts is a man who tells how God answered his prayers and brought Susie through her ailments. He takes the time each morning to read pieces from the Bible, and he enjoys sharing his praises of the Lord with those he meets during any given day.

He is putting his faith in God as well as the doctors and their treatments. Among the treatments he is taking are chemotherapy which started (last) Oct. 29; immunotherapy, which was administered to him on Oct. 9; and on Oct. 29 a scan was done so doctors can map the targets upon which to focus the rays of radiation when radiation therapy begins in November.

It is fortunate that the Tibbettses had already moved to Gilbert before Dave’s diagnosis, as they have two daughters there who help look after their mother. Dave said their church also has a group of women that brings meals and visitors frequently. Since all this help began, Dave said Susie is becoming more active than she had been. In other words, while she might love Dave, it is nice to have a change in helpers now and then, as well as new cooks!

Dave was back in Itasca Township in November to utilize his deer stands. He hoped to bag up his venison from the woods around Itasca—the best, of course!

Meanwhile, he’s hoping people will keep him in their prayers as he faces his deadly adversary.

Anyone wanting to give Dave some words of encouragement can contact him on his cell phone: 218-780-0695. (But please don’t call during prime hunting hours!)

The Farmers Independent asked Dave to let us know how he progresses, as it might help others learn, especially with the use of the new treatment methods of immunotherapy.

According to WebMD, “Immunotherapy is a cancer treatment that uses your immune system to find and kill cancer cells. There are different ways to make this happen, and immune cell gene therapy is one of those ways. It’s also called adoptive cell transfer, or ACT. Genes are pieces of DNA inside a cell that tell the cell what to do. With immune cell gene therapy, genes in certain white blood cells are changed, or reprogrammed, so they can find and fight cancer cells in your body. Each person’s treatment is made using their own cells.”

This article originally appeared in the Farmers Independent in Bagley, MN, in November of 2018. It is reprinted here with permission.

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