Mother postpone cancer treatment to protect baby "saved his life"

Phil and Kim Vaillancourt in his home city of Tonawanda (USA)


For the American pregnant Kim Vaillancourt, who is delaying his treatment of an aggressive brain cancer, it comes down to this: ". Baby saved me Now it's my turn to save him."

Vaillancourt was diagnosed with glioblastoma after searching a hospital with severe headaches and nausea close to Christmas 2015. If not for concern for the child she already knew carry in the womb, she and her husband, Phil, say they would not have gone to the doctor. The information is from the Associated Press news agency.

According to the couple, the unexpected pregnancy was a gift from heaven. Kim had an operation to remove the tumor, but now is dodging all had chemotherapy and radiation treatment to prevent risks to their unborn child, which will have the name of Eli Wyatt.

"She will do what it can to save the life of her baby and make it the healthiest conditions possible," says her husband Phil.


The couple has children of 11 and 12 years and recently adopted three sisters, 6, 7 and 10 years. With five children of school age, Kim would not have worried so much about your headache normally.


Phil shows photos of his wife Kim, who is pregnant, and her five children


"I would have just thought he had a headache and flu. He would have gone to bed," said the mother of 36 years. But knowing he was in the middle of pregnancy, she worried that the nausea would cause her fetus did not receive the necessary nutrition, and thought it best to go to a hospital.

Glioblastoma, they found, is characterized by rapidly growing tumors and reappear within 8 to 12 weeks. Kim's goal is to give birth on 25 April, until then keep doing tests to check any new tumor.

"We are praying that the tests appear clean in the coming weeks," Phil said.

Risk Decision
Although relatively rare, glioblastoma is the most common and most aggressive form of a brain tumor. It affects about 17,000 adults in the United States each year, but it is rare during pregnancy, explained Dr. Robert Fernstermaker, of the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo.

If you were at the beginning of pregnancy, a woman would have been advised to have an abortion to aggressive treatment, the doctor said.

Without wanting to put the health of your baby at risk, the couple plans to start treating Kim two weeks after delivery.


In the meantime, they will begin interviewing nannies to help them make of the baby and the other children while the mother is cancer. "Let's taking it one day at a time," says Phil. "Even when we try to predict the future, you can never know what will come. To do it?"