A 30-year-old Michigan mother with inoperable cancer made the courageous decision to keep the child doctors wanted her to abort and is now facing a battle for her life.
Fox News is reporting on the incredible story of Tasha Kann who was 20 weeks pregnant with her second child when she received the devastating diagnosis that she had anaplastic astrocytoma grade III, a very rare and aggressive malignant tumor. It was the last thing she expected to hear after suffering what she thought was a bad migraine in 2021.
“As she was lying in bed waiting for the headache to pass, she started to feel tingling in her arms and legs, and was suddenly unable to move or stand,” Fox reports. “Assuming she was having a stroke, Kann yelled for help and managed to call 911. At the hospital, a CT scan revealed a large brain mass.”
By the time she received the diagnosis, she already knew she was pregnant and distinctly remembers the moment her doctors came to her room to give their recommendation.
“They all looked at me and told me my best chances of survival would be to get an abortion and start treatment immediately — which might give me five to eight years of survival,” Kann said.
However, being a woman of faith, this was a recommendation she could never accept.
“Aborting my baby was never an option to me because it goes against God’s will,” she said.
During that week in the hospital, “I had many deep conversations with Jesus,” she said, “and I knew that if I held onto the Lord and his promises, he would keep my baby safe.”
Kann’s first concern was saving her baby. Only after the child was safely delivered would she focus on saving herself.
Throughout the pregnancy, her scans remained stable but doctors continued to recommend abortion.
Kann, a hospice nurse, said that “If the cancer was already as bad as they said, killing my baby wouldn’t have saved me anyway.”
In October, 2022, she delivered a healthy baby girl named Gracey who will be the little sister of her two-year-old son, Deklan.
At the time of the birth, doctors gave Kann eight months to live. Almost a year later, she’s still here.
“Every single day, I look at my beautiful baby and think about how easy it was for them to tell me to abort — like she was nothing,” Kann told Fox. “If I had listened — like most patients do, because they trust their doctors and don’t do their own research — my baby wouldn’t be here,” she said. “It’s a miracle from God that we are both here.”
She put all her trust in Jesus, she said, “and He delivered.”
But her battle is far from over. This past summer, doctors discovered that her cancer had spread and is now classified as a Gliomatosis Cerebri, a highly aggressive tumor that affects the central nervous system and lobes of the brain. Unfortunately, treatment options for this type of cancer are very limited.
She decided to try alternative immunotherapy at an integrative cancer treatment center in Houston, Texas, where she recently had ports installed that will enable her to receive treatments at home in Michigan. She gets 12-minute infusions every four hours, 24-hours a day. Because they’re having problems finding an oncologist in Michigan who will work with the integrative clinic, they are being forced to travel to Texas every few weeks for treatments that cost $17,000 per month. The recommended 12 months of treatment will exceed $200,000. Because the treatments are experimental and lack scientific credibility, they are not FDA approved which means insurance will not cover the expenses.
But the community has been a big help in raising money for the treatments and the family’s Go Fund Me page has already raised close to $250,000 to cover these expenses.
In the meantime, Kann is staying focused on raising her two young children and is “walking by faith” day by day.
“The doctors told me I had a prognosis of 12 months, but I beat that in June 2023,” Kann told Fox. “Every time I talk to them, they make it seem like I’m going to die any day, but I’m still able to live a semi-normal life — walking, eating, talking — while having cancer in my central nervous system.”
She says she still feels “normal” most of the time with her main complaints being fatigue and weakness with periodic seizure activity and vision issues.
“The oncologist said she doesn’t know how it’s possible I’m still alive,” Kann said. “How can there be any other answer than our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ?”
“I will continue to follow and pray, give thanks and worship, as long as I’m living — especially when the doctors said I shouldn’t be,” she went on.
“I’ll continue to prove them wrong.”
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