Jakarta –
A mother in Barnsley, England, had to undergo 12 hours of surgery to remove a tumor the size of a football. This procedure must be carried out 8 hours after giving birth.
Mollie Jane Dougherty (23) said that after finding out she was pregnant in December 2022, she felt symptoms of severe pain in her jaw and thought it was a problem with her wisdom teeth. After examination, the doctor considered it to be an abscess or the appearance of a pus-filled pocket formed due to a bacterial infection.
“When I first felt pain in my jaw, at first I thought it was a wisdom tooth. It was very painful,” said Mollie, quoted from Daily Mail, Monday (8/1/2024).
However, Mollie’s pain became so intense that she had to be rushed to the ER and see a specialist. In August 2023, doctors finally diagnosed Mollie with a rare form of bone cancer at 37 weeks. He suffers from the rare cancer stage two osteosarcoma.
“When I found out it was cancer, it was heartbreaking. But at the same time, I had to live with it. My focus the whole time was making sure my baby was OK, everything else was secondary,” she said.
Doctors said they couldn’t do any treatment until Mollie gave birth. It is feared that the treatment process could harm Mollie’s baby. On August 7 2023, Mollie finally gave birth to a baby boy named Tommy.
Mollie only had eight hours with Tommy before she had to undergo further cancer checks. After an initial examination, he then spent three days at home with Tommy before finally consulting again with his surgeon in Sheffield.
Mollie was scheduled for surgery on September 5 2023. Before the procedure to remove the tumor was carried out, she underwent a tracheostomy procedure to create a hole for air and oxygen in the throat.
The 12-hour operation saw surgeons remove his jaw and temporarily cut off his ear so they could access the bone to remove the tumour. Some of the cancer was removed, but a small part was left behind and treated with chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
Mollie said her condition continues to improve. Chemotherapy treatment is still ongoing and he hopes to get a full remission soon.
“It was hard leaving my baby, but my family was very supportive, my mum, Amanda, 54, accompanied me to appointments, and my husband was great looking after Tommy but it was also very difficult for him,” she concluded.
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(avk/juice)
2024-01-08 01:01:24
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