They Discovered My Cancer Because I Was Pregnant With Him, No Way Could I Abort My Baby

International   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Jul 4, 2014   |   3:46PM   |   Vancouver, Canada

If we’ve written one story here at LifeNews during our 20 years about mothers who have had their doctors suggest an abortion of their baby when they learn they have cancer or some other serious medical condition, we’ve written hundreds.

It seems as if physicians, when they learn their pregnant patient has a severe medical problem, seem to think that taking the life of her unborn baby will somehow improve her condition or make the problem go away. And, amazingly, both mother and baby often do just fine when she rejects the suggestion to have an abortion.

Here’s another case of a mom who has no regrets not having an abortion of her little boy, who is now two-years-old. This time, she is not doing as well and her life is in jeopardy. But she has absolutely no regrets not having an abortion.

From the story:

Even when the pain becomes unbearable, cancer patient Ana Mendoza said one glance at her two-year-old son Nathan makes it all go away.

“He’s my miracle baby,” the North Vancouver mom told Metro from her bed at Lion’s Gate Hospital. “I tell him every day.”

Now two and a half years old, Nathan may not understand what his mom means when she says that, but Mendoza said she never wants him to forget how he helped save her life.

Mendoza was 17 weeks pregnant with Nathan when, during a routine checkup with her doctor, she and husband Victor Ulanday received the shocking and devastating diagnosis that she had Stage II cervical cancer.

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“The first thing they wanted us to do was terminate the pregnancy,” she said. “It was very intimidating because it seemed like I had no other choice.”

Faced with the seemingly impossible decision, Mendoza, 40, said she couldn’t fathom losing the pregnancy. If it wasn’t for Nathan, Mendoza said she wouldn’t have known she had cancer. She decided to ask her doctor if there were any other options.

“I couldn’t let him go,” she said. “He’s totally the guy who saved my life.”

When an oncologist suggested trying a low dose of chemotherapy during the pregnancy to prevent the tumour from growing, Mendoza agreed to try. But seven weeks later, doctors were shocked to find the tumour, initially two centimeters, had continued growing despite the chemotherapy. It was now almost seven centimetres, she said.

Twenty-eight weeks into her pregnancy, Mendoza gave birth to a severely premature baby boy. Soon after, she started full-dose chemo and radiation, but still managed to spend every other waking moment beside Nathan’s incubator in the neo-natal intensive care unit, praying that he would survive.

“I made him a deal that I’ll take all the pain and then you do really well,” she said. “I’ll go through anything so that you survive and you do really well, and that’s what happened.”

Eventually both Mendoza and Nathan were discharged and went back home to be with the rest of the family, including the couple’s daughter, five-year-old Lanna.

Both seemed to be healthy until early last year when Mendoza suddenly developed a severe pain in her back, followed by lumps in her neck a few months later.

The cancer had returned and spread to her lymphatic system, doctors told her. She was given six months left to live.

Pray for this brave mother Ana, who was willing to give up her life for her son. May her pain go away and may her condition improve.