Young Mother Delays Chemo to Protect Unborn Child That Saved Her Life

Via CBS News:

TONAWANDA, N.Y. – For Kim Vaillancourt, pregnant while staving off aggressive brain cancer, it comes down to this: “The baby saved me. Now it’s my turn to save him.”

Vaillancourt was diagnosed with glioblastoma after going to the hospital for headaches and nausea that came on over Christmas. Were it not for concern for the boy she’s carrying, she and her husband, Phil, said it was a life-saving trip she would not have made.

They believe the unexpected pregnancy was heaven-sent.

Now, to give the baby they’ve named Wyatt Eli the same chance he gave her, Kim is postponing the chemotherapy and radiation that are her best hope against the cancer but would threaten her developing child.

“She’s going to do what she can to save the baby’s life and give it the healthiest life possible,” Phil Vaillancourt said.

It had already been an eventful time in the Vaillancourt home in the Buffalo suburb of Tonawanda. The couple and their 11- and 12-year-old children had spent Dec. 23 in Erie County Family Court for an adoption ceremony that made three sisters- ages 6, 7 and 10 – the couple had been fostering permanent members of their family.

With five kids on break from school, Kim wouldn’t normally have made a fuss about feeling ill.

“I would have just thought I had a headache and the flu and I would have laid in bed,” the 36-year-old mother said. But she worried that being unable to keep food down was keeping the baby from getting the nourishment he needed and headed to the hospital to be checked.

Soon she would be rushed into surgery to remove two tumors that doctors said could have killed her. One had grown on the front of her brain. The other was dangerously close to her brain stem in the back…

…”We’re praying a lot and trusting God through these next few weeks to keep these scans clean,” Phil Vaillancourt said.

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