Cutting-edge medicine meets compassion

Lisa Flaifel remembers the many dinners she and her husband, George, shared over the years.

“We would go out for a great meal and have a wonderful evening,” she says, “And when we came home, George would try to make himself throw up.”

As drastic as it sounds, it was the only way George could get rid of the relentless heartburn that followed him for more than a decade. He tried medications, diet alterations and says he ultimately “adapted and lived this way. We made it work over the years.”

But Lisa recalls one moment when she finally decided she had watched him struggle long enough. That moment saved his life.

A simple test that changed everything
George and Lisa’s family doctor suggested a quick upper endoscopy to see what was going on. When the results came back, the biopsy revealed George had dysplasia in his esophagus, meaning that cells in his esophagus were pre-cancerous.

George was referred to St. Michael’s Hospital and to gastroenterologist, Dr. Jeff Mosko. They met in July 2025, and the doctor examined George’s esophagus with another endoscopy. When it was done, George was still medicated from the procedure, but he remembers one thing clearly: Dr. Mosko told him to get Lisa and come back into his office.

Everything that followed became a blur for George. But Lisa remembers.

“Dr. Mosko told us that when he went in to look, the changes seen in George’s esophagus were already cancer,” she says. “It was a shock. We knew it was a possibility in the future, but I didn’t think we were there yet.”

Lisa had worked in healthcare for nearly three decades, and she knew what she was hearing. Later, she read everything she could find on esophageal cancer, without telling George. She certainly didn’t want to tell him that a common treatment for this disease is an invasive surgery that removes the esophagus and attaches a part of the bowel in its place.

George just moved through that period the way he moves through most things. “I focused on staying calm and steady, optimistic,” he says. “That’s just who I am.”

Therapeutic endoscopy excellence at St. Michael’s
The most pressing question was whether the cancer had spread. Dr. Mosko told them George needed a PET scan, an imaging test that can detect, stage, and monitor cancers. At that first visit, Dr. Mosko made them a promise: “I will do everything in my power to get you through this as fast as possible.”

After the PET scan, the couple waited. Lisa says those days felt like a lifetime. She and George leaned on Theresa Campbell and Melissa Fortune from Dr. Mosko’s team—always reachable and there to answer their many questions.

The results from the PET scan showed good news: the cancer had not spread. This meant George was a candidate for an endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD)—an endoscopic procedure performed at only a handful of hospitals across Canada, including St. Michael’s.

“The fact that Dr. Mosko and his team are able to do this, that St. Michael’s is willing to fund the ESD program. It’s such a gift,” Lisa says. “Had we been somewhere else, we might not have had that option. That makes me grateful, and a little sad for others who don’t have the same access.”

It’s this combination of expertise and compassion that makes St. Michael’s so unique. The Hospital is home to the Centre for Advanced Therapeutic Endoscopy and Endoscopy Oncology, one of Canada’s largest digestive health centres. With state-of-the-art facilities and a team of highly skilled doctors, surgeons, and nurses, the Centre treats complex digestive conditions, including cancers of the esophagus, stomach, pancreas, duodenum and colon. The Therapeutic Endoscopy unit has twice been named a Centre of Excellence by the World Endoscopy Organization (WEO). Only one Hospital in Canada holds this distinction: St. Michael’s.

“Our goal is to ensure that patients have access to the most advanced and minimally invasive treatments available, no small feat with the way these types of procedures are funded by the government,” says Dr. Mosko. "I feel incredibly fortunate to work in a unit that always puts the patient first. I never for a moment lose sight of the fact that these are life-changing moments for patients and their families, just as it was for George and Lisa. We try to guide everyone through the journey from diagnosis to cure with respect, compassion, and clarity.”

Road to recovery
On August 12, George had his ESD, where Dr. Mosko removed 20 cm of diseased tissue from his esophagus in a single, intact piece. When the results came back, they showed the margins were clear, and George would not need further treatment.

“Everyone on the team worked so well together,” Lisa recalls. “They were so kind, so caring, and so supportive of one another and of us. There’s something special about this unit.”

The morning after surgery, Lisa was amazed to see George already walking around the unit. Three weeks later, George was golfing again. Four weeks after that, he was back to strenuous training.

George and Lisa have returned to St. Michael’s for three follow-up procedures, but the cancer is gone. The heartburn that wore George down for a decade is gone. And their son was married in November, with George joyfully present.

Their gratitude runs deep, Lisa says, adding: “If sharing our story helps even one other patient get access to this kind of care, and helps raise the funds to make that possible, then we’ll do whatever we can.”

“I’m very grateful to St. Mike’s,” echoes George. “And very lucky that every step along the way has been the best-case scenario for us. Every single piece just fell into place.”

Dr. Jeff Mosko is running the Canada Bum Run on Sunday, May 26 in downtown Toronto—raising $10,000 for new equipment in St. Mike’s Therapeutic Endoscopy Program. You can support his team here.