Procedure Helps Scuba Diver Conquer Colon Polyps and Dive Again

David Lampl, a scuba diver by trade, faced sharks but never imagined facing colon cancer at 42. “I had zero symptoms. You would never, ever known anything was wrong or different,” David says.

His mom also had colon cancer. Gastroenterologist and Director of Endoscopy at UHealth, Sunil Amin, M.D., says an early screening colonoscopy is critical for those considered high risk.

“For example, those with a family history of colon cancer. Those people should be screened at 40 or 10 years before the earliest diagnosis of their family member. By coming to UHealth Doral, you really have access to the whole army of specialists we have at the University of Miami. And that’s the point to bring this academic level care to the community here,” Dr. Amin says.

Because David’s a scuba diver, Dr. Amin wanted to avoid surgery, which would have left him with a colostomy bag. By performing the ESD procedure, David was able to recover quickly and get back into the water doing what he loves.

ESD: a highly specialized technique for faster recovery

“ESD is endoscopic submucosal dissection. It’s a highly specialized, minimally invasive endoscopic procedure where we are able to remove an early cancer or an advanced colon polyp from the lining of the colon in one piece and send that to pathology. And most importantly, usually these types of polyps or early cancers would need to be sent to surgery. And so, this procedure hopefully allows us to save a lot of patients the morbidity of a large surgery,” Dr. Amin says.

ESD can be performed during colonoscopy or as a separate procedure.

David had ESD in 2021 and considers himself “very blessed.” “I know it could have gone a lot differently,” he says.

David is diving again and encourages everyone to get screened.

“Definitely just go, I guess, because you never know. I would’ve never gone if it weren’t for my mom pushing me. And if I hadn’t gone, I wouldn’t be here right now for sure,” David says.

Video transcript compiled by Janna Ross for ‘Focusing on You: Innovations in Modern Medicine,’ a series of healthcare-related stories airing regularly on WPLG Local 10.  For more stories like this one, visit UHealth’s YouTube channel.

Tags: colon cancer, colonoscopy, Dr. Sunil Amin, endoscopic submucosal dissection, focusing on you, gastroenterologist, Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, UHealth Doral