2023-04-24 04:00:00
A mother who gave birth to her first child a few weeks ago has just learned that she is suffering from incurable liver cancer which leaves her at most six months to live.
“A child should never have to live without a parent. I will do everything to let him know how extraordinary his mother was, ”breathes Pierre Olivier Barbeau, between two sobs.
At the end of February, then 32 weeks pregnant, his partner Kathy Lu started complaining of stomach pains. The situation, however, did not alert the doctors who attributed this situation to the seat position of the baby in his belly.
But a few days following giving birth, which occurred prematurely at 37 weeks at the end of March, the pain was still very present. Tests later confirmed to the couple from Quebec that the 30-year-old woman suffered from very advanced liver cancer.
“It completely threw us to the ground. Everything collapsed in a second,” sighs M.me Lu, who is not even able to take care of her baby anymore due to illness.
Last chance treatment
Their doctor discovered a cancerous mass 18 centimeters in diameter within the new mother’s liver, along with several other secondary tumors.
As the cancer is too advanced to be removed with surgery, she was told that she had between 3 and 6 months to live.
“I will never see my son grow up and he will only see me in pictures… We wonder what we did to deserve this,” confides emotionally Mme Lu.
The only treatment available to her is liver embolization, which serves to reduce the blood supply to the organ to halt the growth of the tumour. But it is usually a treatment that only serves to prolong the life of people for whom recovery is not possible.
“We live from day to day and we cross our fingers that she responds well,” says Mr. Barbeau, refusing to lose hope for his wife of the past 12 years.
In the meantime, the new mother launched a crowdfunding campaign on the GoFundMe platform hoping to help her spouse survive financially without her.
Enjoy every moment
“I want to make sure they don’t miss anything when I’m gone,” says Mme Lu, who will try to bond with her son Evans as long as she can.
“We all think we’re invincible, but it’s in situations like that that we see that we don’t care much. You never know when it can turn around,” says Mr. Barbeau, inviting people to enjoy every moment with the people they love.
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