By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
The insurance company of a pregnant woman suffering from an extremely aggressive form of cancer refused to cover her treatment unless she had an abortion. Thanks to the intervention of pro-life doctors and lawyers, the woman was able to keep her insurance and the baby, which was born healthy.
According to a report by LifeSiteNews.com, a veteran pro-life sidewalk counselor from California named Georgia Froncek told the story of the amazing couple she encountered outside the Long Beach Family Planning Associates abortion mill in California last winter. It was there that she met Carols Candalario, an Hispanic man desperate for help to save the five month-old unborn child his wife, Nereyda, was about to abort due to pressure from their insurance company.
Apparently, Nereyda had an aggressive stage-four cancer which needed immediate treatment of a kind that would have endangered the life of her unborn child. Even though Nereyda refused, the insurance company had called her every day for 14 days trying to pressure her into getting the abortion so treatment could begin.
Ms. Froncek, an experienced counselor, knew the insurance provider could not deny Nereyda coverage because she was paying for her own insurance through her employer. She immediately told Carlos that she could help. He called Nereyda who was already inside the clinic, and told her to call off the abortion.
“She came out within thirty seconds, crying and very upset,” Ms. Froncek said.
After speaking with a social worker, Ms. Froncek accompanied the couple to a consultation with her doctors. The meeting was attended by a thoracic surgeon, one internal medicine cancer specialist and a high-risk obstetric doctor.
“The thoracic surgeon displayed Nereyda’s MRI scan – revealing a huge tumor spreading tentacles around her heart, lungs, and other vital organs,” Ms. Froncek said. “I had never seen a tumor like that! I turned my head away from Carlos and Nereyda so they would not see that I was weeping.”
The doctors said Nereyda had one of the worst and fastest growing cancers they had ever seen, and that without being able to shrink it with radiation and chemotherapy, she would be dead within two months. The high risk OB-GYN doctor wanted Nereyda to abort the baby so she could begin the most aggressive therapy to prolong her life.
However, Ms. Froncek has a background in pharmaceuticals and suggested a drug, Adriamycin, which could be used to treat Nereyda without harming the child. The doctors eventually agreed, although it was not the best or most aggressive treatment they could have offered.
By the grace of God, Nereyda delivered a healthy baby boy by caesarian section on May 18 – which was three months after the doctors said she had only two months to live. They named their child Angel Jesus Candalario.
Since then, she has been able to undergo chemotherapy and the tumor has shrunk, but she is still in need of prayer.
“This is a wonderful miracle and a touching testimony of one woman’s faith and obedience to God, despite the consequences to herself,” Ms. Froncek said. “I know Nereyda is a living saint!”
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