The Daily Mail is reporting that 30 year-old Sarah Best from Leamington Spa, UK, was four months pregnant when surgeons removed a large cancerous tumor from her tongue. Unfortunately, they later discovered that the cancer had spread to her lymph nodes and the only way to stop it was by undergoing radiotherapy, a treatment that risked the health of her unborn baby.
Sarah wanted her baby and refused to go ahead with the life-saving therapy until her doctors came up with an ingenious idea - to surround the baby in a thick lead shield to protect it from the harmful radiation rays.
It took only a weekend for engineers to construct 1.5 ton lead shields that protected her womb during the radiation therapy. Each shield was 20 inches long and lined with a layer of lead four inches thick to block the radiation.
"The engineers built it over a weekend and even came in to see it in action," Sarah told the Mail. "They were only just big enough to cover my bump as I grew quite large over the month I was having the treatment."
During the radiation sessions, the medics lowered one shield over her stomach while a second shield was pressed against her side to stop the radiation from reaching the baby.
Just minutes after receiving her last treatment on April 28 of this year, she went into labor and was wheeled from the cancer ward straight into the labor room where she gave birth to a healthy baby boy named Jake.
Consultant Oncologist Dr Lydia Fresco, who helped design and build the protective baby-shield, told the Mail that Sarah's case was extremely rare.
"As far as published cases go she was the only woman in the world to have this combination of chemotherapy and radiotherapy while pregnant. Because her cancer was highly aggressive it would have been much more likely to recur if she had not had the treatment. Radiotherapy is most effective for preventing cancer recurring six weeks after the tumour is removed, so we had to treat Sarah when we did."
Tests on baby Jake indicate that he is perfectly healthy, Dr. Fresco said.
In addition, Sarah just had the additional good news of learning that she is cancer-free.
Sarah's story is sure to bring hope to many pregnant woman who face the same agonizing choice every year about whether to receive potentially life-saving cancer treatment or risk the life and health of their child.
"I was devastated when I was told I had cancer," said Sarah, who works as a child support officer at a children's center.
"They basically told me I had to have the radiotherapy or the cancer would spread.I was really worried about the effect the radiotherapy could have on the baby, but he is perfectly healthy, smiley and smart."
She added: "I couldn't be luckier. He is our mini-miracle."
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