Surgeons are performing an emergency cesarean section in a desperate bid to save a terminally ill pregnant mother and her unborn baby – five weeks after she suffered a stroke that left her on life support.
Carrie Deklyen, 37, is 25 weeks and five days pregnant with her sixth child, a girl who will be named Life.
Days before she found out she was pregnant in April, she was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor, the same one John McCain has.
Doctors said they needed to reach 28 weeks’ gestation before they could deliver the child.
But on July 28, at just 19 weeks, Carrie suffered a traumatic stroke. She has lain unconscious on and off a ventilator ever since.
Despite trying to wait until the end of September, doctors at the University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor decided today that they could not wait any longer, as the baby has been moving less and less and they worry she could die in Carrie’s womb.
The surgery is risky because Carrie could die on the table, as she remains sporadically dependent on a ventilator and has fluid in her brain.
But now, delivery is the only option for Life to have a chance of surviving as doctors say she lacks mobility – and she too has fluid in her brain.
Life, the baby, was doing well last week but her situation took a turn for the worst. Doctors are delivering her tonight because she is sick and they worry she could die in Carrie’s womb
Carrie Deklyen, 37, found out she was pregnant with her sixth child after doctors found a terminal brain tumor that was causing her extreme headaches
Before her stroke: Carrie DeKlyen, 37, was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer in April. Pictured: Carrie in the hospital with Jez, Laila, Nevaeh and her husband Nick
Carrie was diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme diagnosis, a terminal brain tumor that was originally the size of a clementine.
At the time, she and her husband Nick, 39, didn’t know she was pregnant.
When she found out she decided to forgo chemotherapy to keep the child. Although it could have extended her life and shrunk the tumor, it would have killed the baby.
Doctors have yet to test the risks of chemotherapy on a baby during the first trimester.
Those first months are crucial for a baby because most of the internal organs are developing and the drugs could hinder that.
Chemotherapy is also more likely to cause a miscarriage during the first trimester.
So Carrie opted for radiation treatment in hopes it would keep herself alive long enough to have her child.
She also had two surgeries, one to try to remove the tumor and the other to drain the liquid, but both have no helped her situation.
People with this aggressive form of brain cancer only have a 10 percent chance of surviving five years after diagnosis.
The mother, from Wyoming, Michigan, has been unresponsive at the hospital since the end of July.
Doctors had to put her into a medically induced coma after she suffered a dangerous stroke from the tumor that continues to grow in her brain.
The stroke has left her off and on a ventilator for over a month as she fights to breathe on her own without exerting too much energy on her body.
Towards the beginning of her coma, she was responsive and would occasionally open her eyes or move her limbs.
Doctors were hopeful that she would maybe even wake up from the coma once the swelling in her brain went down.
Sonya, Carrie’s sister-in-law, has been keeping people updated on Carrie’s progress through a Facebook account. Today, doctors told the family they needed to deliver Life because of Carrie’s current condition
But the tumor continues to grow and with that growth comes the need to constantly drain her skull from excess fluid.
Doctors tested Life’s size and health today because they were worried about her viability outside of the womb.
She measured a couple days ago in the three percentile range for size at 25 weeks and five days old.
Her mobility has also grown less and less over the weeks, which has prompted the doctors to decide to deliver her tonight for fear that she would die in Carrie’s womb if they didn’t.
At 25 weeks, Life is considered in the extremely preterm category.
She also has developed a small amount of fluid in her brain.
This fluid can cause minor symptoms for Life or severe brain damage, but doctors won’t know more until they have delivered her.
On average, 75 percent of babies born at 25 weeks survive in the United States.
The normal gestation period for an infant is 40 weeks old.
Some problems that doctors are worried about when they deliver a baby this young is the high risk of developing a neurological disability.
These disabilities can include something as severe as an inability to walk or control their muscles or something mild such as having a learning disability.
Life has all of her organs intact but the fluid in her brain could cause her problems later on.
Carrie and Nick have been married for 17 years. Their sixth child was a shock but they decided together to forgo chemotherapy and keep her
Fighting: Carrie, pictured after her first surgery to remove her tumor. It was just days before she found out she was pregnant with her sixth child
Carrie’s husband Nick has been staying at the Ronald McDonald House in Ann Arbor, Michigan, since Carrie went unconscious so he can be close to his wife and baby while they fight for their lives.
Carrie and Nick have five other children besides Life: Elijah, 18; Isaiah, 16; Nevaeh, 11; Leila, four; and Jez, two.
The children have been staying with their dad during part of the week to see their mother and with their Aunt Sonya, Nick’s sister, for the other part of the week.
Sonya created a Facebook page, Cure 4 Carrie, to keep family, friends and supporters updated on Carrie’s struggle during her cancer diagnosis.
She also created a GoFundMe page to help raise awareness of what the family is going through to help pay for Carrie and the baby’s care.
So far, the page has made close to $80,000 with more than three thousand shares on Facebook.
What is glioblastoma? The most aggressive tumor that forms from glial cells in the brain
Glioblastoma is the most aggressive tumor that can form in the brain and was also found in John McCain last month. Patients have a 10 percent chance of surviving five years after their diagnosis.
It is made up of a mass of cells growing in the brain, and in most cases patients have no family history of the disease, according to the American Cancer Society.
The tumor won’t spread to other organs, however, once it is diagnosed, it is nearly impossible to target.
Unlike other types of brain cancer which are more specifically located, glioblastoma can occur in any part of the brain.
Because the tumor likely already spread deep into the brain by the time it is diagnosed, the cancerous tissue is incredibly difficult to remove.
It is mostly found in men between the ages of 50 and 60 with previous history of cancer, so it is incredibly rare that Carrie got the cancer.
John McCain was diagnosed with brain cancer last month after getting a blood clot removed from behind his eye. Doctors removed the glioblastoma from the 80-year-olds brain but they say it will likely come back
Symptoms:
Symptoms can include blurred vision, severe headaches, trouble with memory and dizziness.
Carrie experienced three weeks of severe headaches before doctors found her tumor.
In order to diagnose the disease, doctors will do a CAT scan or MRI, and then biopsy the tumor and run pathology tests.
Treatment:
Chemotherapy is one option to treat glioblastomas, though it is relatively ineffective because of the blood wall surrounding the brain that protects it. That barrier makes it difficult for the drugs to reach the tumor.
Radiation is another option the Senator’s doctors will employ, however because of the chance of harming other organs or brain tissue, they will only be able to use a low dose.
The low dose might shrink the cancer, but will not kill the entire tumor.
Carrie opted to do radiation since she could no longer do chemotherapy since it would terminate the pregnancy.
Although the radiation might have shrunk the tumor some, the doctors say Carrie’s tumor continues to grow.
The tumor makes it impossible to remove every microscopic growth. Therefore, it will continue to grow.