Cancer-stricken mother dies 23 days after giving birth to daughter she saved by refusing chemotherapy treatment

By LAURIE WHITWELL

Trade: Stacie Crimm, right, refused chemotherapy for cancer so that her unborn baby Dottie Mae, left, could survive

Faced with the knowledge that only chemotherapy would save her from terminal neck cancer, newly-pregnant Stacie Crimm made the ultimate sacrifice.

The 41-year-old, who had been told by doctors she would never be able to conceive a child, decided to refuse the treatment so her unborn daughter could live instead.

Stacie was able to survive for five months before being forced to deliver Dottie Mae, weighing just 2lbs 1oz, by Caesarean section - and even managed to hold her on one occasion before succumbing to the disease three days later.


Sacrifice: Dottie Mae will now be cared for by Stacie's brother Ray Phillips and his wife Jennifer

'This baby was everything she had in this world,' Stacie's brother Ray Phillips told the Oklahoman.

It was he Stacie called in March when she received the unfathomable news that she was pregnant after years of thinking she was infertile.

'You're not going to believe this,' the mother-to-be had told him in a mixture of laughter and tears, according to The Oklahoman.

But over the next days and weeks, as she shopped for all the things her baby would need, a serious worry began to gnaw at Stacie. She was having severe headaches and double vision, while tremors struck every inch of her body.


Emotional: The moment Stacie was able to meet her baby daughter before she passed away. Also pictured are her siblings Ray and Elizabeth

She began to tell Ray of her growing concerns. 'I'm worried about this baby,' she said in one text, according to the Oklahoman. 'I hope I live long enough to have this baby,' said another message. 'Bubba, if anything happens to me, you take this child.'

Stacie was no longer with the father of the baby and would have raised her daughter as a single mother if she survived.

At her family's encouragement, Stacie visited a number of doctors and in July, a CT scan revealed that she had head and neck cancer.


Tiny: Dottie Mae was delivered four months early by Caesarean section, weighing just 2lbs 1oz

'Nobody said anything, it got real quiet,' Ray told NewsOk. 'I told my sister, "You have done a beautiful thing". It was the perfect moment, that's what I called it.'
Stacie died three days later. Her funeral was on September 14.

Her obituary on the Dudley Funeral Homes website reads: 'Dottie Mae was the light of her life and her greatest accomplishment. She chose to give this baby life instead of taking treatment for herself.'

Dottie Mae now lives with Ray, his wife Jennifer and their four children in their Oklahoma City home
'I think she's a miracle. I just want to do right by her and do what Stacie asked,' Jennifer said.


Loving mother: Dottie Mae was able to meet her mother before Stacie died three days later on September 11


Part of the family: Stacie's brother Ray Phillips has taken Dottie Mae into his home with his four children after the baby's father left his sister



Special unit: Dottie Mae had to be transferred into an ICU module so she could be taken from intensive care to her mother




source: dailymail

Posted in: Health,News Update