Written By: Women and Infants on August 17, 2021
Gardenia was four months pregnant when she knew something was wrong. Redness, swelling, and itching around her breast sent her to her primary care doctor’s office.
Her doctor sent her straight to Women & Infants Hospital, where she and her family received the terrible news: Breast Cancer. Aggressive, inflammatory breast cancer.
Gardenia shared,
“I couldn’t hear a thing the doctor was saying. All I could think about was the baby, what would happen to my baby?”
Can you imagine? Pregnancy is a scary time for any new mother. To receive a cancer diagnosis was devastating. But Gardenia was in the compassionate, exceptional care of Dr. Sakr from Women & Infants Hospital.
With support from friends like you, our team at Women & Infants works every day to help women like Gardenia and their families at pivotal moments in their lives.
Dr. Sakr teamed up with maternal-fetal medicine specialist, Dr. Ramos, to come up with a treatment plan. Together, they customized a course of powerful chemotherapy that would control Gardenia’s cancer without harming the fetus. It was a delicate balance — risky for both mother and baby. This kind of collaborative care, combining expertise in high-risk pregnancy, cancer treatment, and support services like social work and home care, is unique to Women & Infants.
Over the next four months of her pregnancy, Gardenia endured the terrible side effects of chemotherapy. She was sick to her stomach, she had difficulty eating, and her hair fell out.
She shared,
“I knew I’d have to have more chemo after the baby was born,” Gardenia said. “But that was the last thing on my mind. I just prayed the baby would be okay. The doctors were so caring and positive. They gave me hope.”
That’s what our teams do at Women & Infants, they give hope, and they give life.
At 36 weeks, Gardenia gave birth to her son Josue Jesus. Little Josue arrived early, to minimize the amount of chemotherapy he was exposed to. But he was born healthy and into the caring hands of our Labor and Delivery Staff and the loving arms of his mother and father.
Gardenia still has a long road ahead, but she’s got the care team at Women & Infants to see her through remaining cancer treatments. We don’t know what the future holds, but we know that our team will do everything possible to ensure that Gardenia gets the best possible care, treatment, and support.
Every day at Women & Infants, our doctors, nurses, and staff help women like Gardenia and babies like Josue.
We can’t do that without YOU. You can make a gift today that will ensure that women, their families, and their newborns continue to receive cutting-edge, compassionate care at the hospital. You can make a gift today to ensure that women like Gardenia have a place to turn.
We hope you’ll support us in this vital, life-saving work.
