Good News: Baby’s Life Spared, Thanks to LLDF Advance Healthcare Directive

On February 3, sidewalk counselor Georgia Warwick met a distraught couple outside an abortion clinic. Nereyda was 4-1/2 months pregnant and had just been diagnosed with stage-4 sarcoma cancer; it had invaded her lung, heart, and pulmonary artery. She had a three-doctor consultation scheduled for February 13 and had been told to abort her baby by then or she could not be treated. The couple, who had five other children and two grandchildren, very much wanted this child. Georgia agreed to along for moral support on February 13. Nereyda’s three doctors grudgingly agreed to treat Nereyda without an abortion but warned she would likely die within two months. They advised her to sign the HMO’s Advance Healthcare Directive. Fearing the baby would still die if Nereyda were to go into a coma and be removed from life support, Georgia said they’d be back with their own healthcare directive. Later, Georgia called pro-life attorney Colette Wilson, who sent Georgia to the LLDF website for a pro-life Advance Healthcare Directive. Colette also put Georgia and the couple in touch with a pro-life OB/Gyn for help with specific wording. They added language specifying that Nereyda wanted to be kept on life support for as long as her uterus provided a healthy environment for her unborn baby. Thus armed, Nereyda got the HMO doctors to back off, let her to continue her pregnancy, and treat the cancer with drugs that would not harm her unborn child. Miraculously, Nereyda was able to go full term. She delivered a healthy, five-pound, baby boy by scheduled C-section on May 18, and he is doing quite well. Her tumor has shrunk, although it is still inoperable; she began chemotherapy June 30.