Fueled by gratitude: A Bearcat couple’s journey of resilience and giving

Charlene Comeaux and Ken Ludlow, UCBA ’71, Bus, ’72, prioritize having fun. Whale-watching off Cape Cod, looking for wild horses in Wyoming and navigating pesky roundabouts in Ireland are among their recent adventures.

While at home in Cincinnati, they enjoy going to the pool, trying restaurants and cheering on the University of Cincinnati Bearcats. 

Ludlow has a history of involvement with his alma mater, but recent events inspired him to create the Ken Ludlow Athletics Scholarship Endowment Fund for student-athletes and the Kenneth E. Ludlow Fund for Cancer Research at the UC College of Medicine and the University of Cincinnati Cancer Center.

“I’m his inspiration,” Comeaux says. 

During a routine visit to the dentist, Comeaux reported on some discomfort around her implants. The dentist discovered an infection and a biopsy was recommended.

Two weeks later, Comeaux’s “world was turned upside down” when she was diagnosed with stage four oral cancer.

Chad Zender, MD, senior vice president and chief of physician practices at UC Health, and Dustin Silverman, MD, assistant program director of the fellowship in head and neck cancer, conducted a 12-hour surgery to remove the cancer and reconstruct Comeaux’s jaw using bone and tissue from her left leg.

She was sent to the intensive care unit with a feeding tube, a tracheotomy and eight draining tubes from surgical sites.

“I had a broken jaw, a cheek the size of a grapefruit, nerve damage and a drooping lower lip,” Comeaux recalls. “Not to mention the heavy metal boot that must be worn every time I get out of bed to protect my leg where the bone graft occurred.”

Ludlow says the first time he saw Comeaux in the intensive care unit, “my knees buckled.”

“She looked like she’d been hit by a tractor trailer truck,” he recalls. “During the next six days of intensive care, an army of nurses and doctors monitored her, overseeing every aspect of her condition. It was unbelievable.”

While healing in an outpatient facility, Comeaux developed three infections. She was sent back to UC Medical Center and again, the UC Health team stepped in with care that astounded and impressed the couple. The UC Health Infectious Diseases team developed an antibiotic treatment, administered intravenously, to fight off the infections.

“The team at UC Health was just phenomenal,” Comeaux says.

“There were a lot of close calls with critical decisions,” Ludlow adds.

While Comeaux is still managing challenges post-treatment, none of this has diminished her sense of fun and gratitude.

“I’m 18 months out getting clean CT scans, and I am told if things stay that way for two years, it's a 99% chance it will not return. I'm blessed to have had all the caring professionals in my corner and do not take that support and care for granted.”

This amazing care and knowledge are why Ludlow decided to create an estate gift to support research with a preference for oral and maxillofacial cancers. The fund may also be used for disease relevant pilot funding, cross disciplinary clinical research, investigator-initiated clinical studies and training opportunities for residents, fellows and faculty.

“After the experience that I witnessed, and what she went through, I thought, ‘UC Health is doing good work and I want to support them,’” Ludlow says.