Mum-to-be refuses lung cancer operation to save unborn baby
Filed under: Birth stories, Mums
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She was advised to abort her unborn baby when she was five months pregnant so doctors could urgently operate on the growing tumour in her left lung.
Daniella, 22, from Aspley in Nottingham, has never smoked a cigarette. She developed asthma in 2010, and by the time she fell pregnant with her second child in April last year, she was suffering attacks on a daily basis.
Doctors at the Royal Preston Hospital thought the young mum might have a blood clot on the lung so gave her an injection to thin her blood and sent her for an X-ray. She was finally sent for a CT scan which revealed the 4cm tumour in her left lung.
Tests confirmed the tumour was cancerous, but doctors refused to operate while she was pregnant and advised her to terminate her pregnancy to save her own life.
But abortion was never an option for brave Daniella, and she was determined to wait until she gave birth to start treatment.
"I was crying and so was my partner. I thought it was the end for me and my baby," says Daniella. "I felt like a ticking time bomb. I had nightmares about dying in labour."
On January 6, Daniella's daughter, Rennae was born four weeks prematurely, but fit and healthy, weighing 6lb, 3oz.
A month later, the new mum underwent a four-hour operation to cut out the tumour and remove half of her lung.
Daniella is now making a slow recovery and is enjoying being mum to Rennae, now four months, her first baby with partner, Andrew Bartle. She hopes sharing her story will help raise awareness for others:
"If this can happen to me it can happen to anyone. People need to know this isn't just an old person's disease. I kept fit, I never smoked, and my world fell apart when I got this disease.
"I'm just so thankful I have a future with my children and I'm surviving."
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Mum expecting twins refused to consider abortion after being told she had breast cancer
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