Tragic end for woman who said no to cancer treatment to save her unborn son

The Scotsman ^ | 05/17/2007 | FRANK URQUHART

[Rutles4Ever]

WHEN Anna Radosz, a mother to be, was diagnosed with a potentially fatal form of skin cancer, her first thoughts were for her unborn child.

Six months into the pregnancy, she was told a course of chemotherapy would be needed to successfully tackle the malignant melanoma.

But the 27-year-old refused the potentially life-saving treatment to protect her baby, and she gave birth to a healthy son, Oscar, last November.

But that selfless sacrifice has cost Ms Radosz her life.

Her partner, Daniel Smajdor, 26, was at her bedside when she died in a Polish hospital. He was said last night to be inconsolable with grief.

The couple had been full of hope for the future when Ms Radosz, an agricultural science graduate, left her native Poland to start a new life with Mr Smajdor in Scotland two years ago.

A qualified heavy-goods driver, he had originally worked with the bus company First Aberdeen before taking on a new job as a delivery driver.

A year before Ms Radosz's move to Scotland, a mole on one of her arms had been diagnosed as a malignant melanoma and removed. But last summer, when she was six months pregnant, spots returned to various parts of her neck, throat and arms.

Doctors at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary told the devastated couple that the cancer had returned. She was told she would need chemotherapy to fight the disease, but because of her fears for the life of her unborn baby, she refused the treatment.

Oscar was delivered prematurely in the 36th week of her pregnancy to enable her to begin chemotherapy as quickly as possible.

However, tests carried out after the birth revealed that the disease had spread into both her lungs. They also showed the presence of a brain tumour.

Ms Radosz, of Seamount Court, Aberdeen, was told conventional treatment offered her only a 10 per cent prospect of survival, but she discovered that pioneering gene therapy at Boston's world famous Brigham and Women's Hospital could give her a chance of seeing her baby growing up.

She pledged then: "I'll move heaven and earth to get more time with my precious baby. I could have a year, maybe six months or even less, but I'll do anything to live to be a mother to my baby. "

In a touching personal appeal in Szkocka, the magazine for Poles in Scotland, she told of her diagnosis, Oscar's birth and the deterioration in her condition.

She wrote:

"Recently a new hope has appeared. Unfortunately, the treatment is very expensive and I can't afford it. This is my last chance of a possible recovery or at least prolonged life. The cancer is spreading fast, therefore I am asking for help urgently. I would like to enjoy a family life for a little longer, watching my baby son grow."

Her tragic story touched the hearts of hundreds of people in her adopted home and her native Poland, and within weeks more than £30,000 had been raised towards the estimated £80,000 cost of her treatment in the United States.

The couple's prayers were then answered when the authorities at the American hospital agreed to take her case.

But last week, days before she was due to fly to Boston, she became seriously ill during a visit to relatives in Poland.

She was rushed to hospital and slipped into a coma, from which she never recovered. Mr Smajdor flew to Poland with his baby son and was at her bedside when she died last Friday.

Wayne Martin, their neighbour and friend in Aberdeen, said yesterday: "It came as a bit of a shock, because we thought she was going to make it to America. She was determined everything was going to work out."

He went on: "Daniel has been really upset but is trying to pull himself together for the sake of their son. Everyone is devastated. Daniel said he's now trying to put his life back together, but it's going to be hard for him. This is not the ending any of us wanted."

8,000 CASES A YEAR - BUT SURVIVAL RATE IS GOOD

MORE than 8,100 cases of malignant melanoma are diagnosed in the UK every year - accounting for 3 per cent of all cancers.

In 2005, the disease caused 1,818 deaths in Britain, including 158 in Scotland. Nationally, it is the seventh most common cancer in women and the tenth most common in men.

People who are very fair skinned, particularly those with fair or red hair, are more at risk of developing melanoma.

According to Cancer Research UK, if melanoma is diagnosed early, the survival statistics are very good and most stage 1 and stage 2 melanomas can be cured. A spokesman said: "In comparison to other types of cancers that are diagnosed in the later stages, the figures are still fairly good.

"For women in these later stages of the disease, just over five out of ten will be alive five years later. For men, just over four out of ten will be alive five years later.

"Overall, people from higher social classes tend to have a better prognosis. This may be because they are more likely to see a doctor about their melanoma at an earlier stage, but we don't really know the reason for sure."

Last updated: 17-May-07 01:00 BST

[ConfusedAndLovingIt]

God will reward her.

How? If she accepted Jesus, she's saved. If not, she's damned. Anything else she may have done doesn't matter. At least, that's how I understand things work from the explanations I've heard.

If any of you Christians can help me understand where I've gotten things wrong, please feel free, because what I've written there sure doesn't make any sense to me.

[Battle Hymn of the Republic]

your absolutely right. we are saved by Christ, not by works.

hopefully she asked Jesus to save her before she died. maybe her "partner" or another family member told her of Christ, we just don't know...

[NYer]

Prayer of Saint Gianna Beretta Molla
Jesus, I promise You to submit myself  to all that You permit to befall me,
 make me only know Your will.

 My most sweet Jesus, infinitely merciful God, most tender Father of souls,
 and in a particular way of the most weak, most miserable, most infirm
 which You carry with special tenderness between Your divine arms,
 I come to You to ask You, through the love and merits of Your Sacred Heart,
 the grace to comprehend and to do always Your holy will,
 the grace to confide in You,
 the grace to rest securely through time and eternity in Your loving divine arms.

---

Catholic Ping
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[AnAmericanMother]

Don't worry, she's Polish.

99 and 94/100ths are Catholic. She accepted Jesus, she died heroically in defense of His commandments, I think it's pretty clear she's in heavenly glory as we speak, and St. Gianna Molla is giving her a great big hug.

[wagglebee]

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[GrandEagle]

Tragic in that her son will not get to meet his mother who loved him this much - IMHO.
This side of eternity anyway...

[Pinkbell]

That’s not my belief as a Catholic. We believe that when people have to have faith in Jesus with good works to be saved. For example, one couldn’t accept Jesus and go on a murderous rampage and still be saved. Also, while we believe the Church and a life in Christ is the ultimate path to salvation, we realize some people may never have the opportunity to know Christ or Christianity but were still good people. We believe they have a chance to go to Heaven as well.

[Malacoda]

St. Gianna Molla. She was Canonized recently.

[Pinkbell]

This is a definition of a mother, willing to sacrifice even her life for her child, as Jesus sacrificed his life for the salvation of all his children. Prayers for her family, especially her husband and little boy.

[Robert A Cook PE]

Hmmmn.

I would have wrote, “Heroic Salvation For Woman Who Sacrificed Her Life For Her Child” ....

But then again, I’m not a pro-abortion-centric (unbiased) MSM headline writer, either......

[Cicero]

I take this as an outward sign of God’s grace. But I don’t think this is an appropriate time to argue about Calvinist notions of superlapsarianism or irresistable grace.

She is a Catholic, and the Catholic Church clearly declared at the Council of Trent that no one can be saved without divine grace, through the saving office of Christ.

[Alkhin]

No greater love hath [woman] than to lay down her life for the innocent. [sic]

Blessed be the Name of God!

[janereinheimer]

great point.

If only everyone would realize this and also know that only God does life.

We are all here on earth at His behest to build His kingdom.

I pray for this woman who certainly made the ultimate sacrifice for her child. I hope that she is watching him grow from her vantage point along heaven’s shores.

Blessings to her and to her family and especially to her son who will grow some little while before he comes to know and appreciate how much his mother loved him.

[ConfusedAndLovingIt]

Thank you for the explanation.

[ConfusedAndLovingIt]

But I don’t think this is an appropriate time to argue ...

I was looking for enlightenment, not an argument. I appreciate your reply, but found it completely incomprehensible.

[Mom MD]

we are saved by Christ, but at the judgement seat, there will be rich rewards for believers for deeds found worthy (done in His name for selfless purposes)

[GovernmentIsTheProblem]

“Couldn’t have said it any better myself! The protection the placenta provides for the unborn is a great example of Divine design.”

Lol try natural selection.

Mutations involving unprotected placenta wouldn’t reach maturity and reproduce...

[Cicero]

Ah. Well, among other things, Catholics believe in the necessity of grace but not the irresistability of grace. They believe in election of a kind, but not in double election. For instance, they don’t believe that God decreed the damnation of any individual before the creation of the universe. He gave angels and men the freedom to choose, and when men fell He gave them the grace necessary to restore, in large part, that freedom.

God foreknows, but does not decree, damnation.

Oddly enough, although he was strongly anti-Catholic, Milton got it right in Paradise Lost, in large part because he had read Arminius and was familiar with the discussions that took place in Holland at the Council of Dort. God gave human beings free will, enabled by grace and love.

But I don’t think the death of a virtuous woman is the proper moment to argue abstruse theological points.

[bedolido]

Lord bless this saint

[Talking_Mouse]

Don't worry, she's Polish.

99 and 94/100ths are Catholic. She accepted Jesus, she died heroically in defense of His commandments, I think it's pretty clear she's in heavenly glory as we speak, and St. Gianna Molla is giving her a great big hug.

While I hope this is true she was not married while having sex with her "partner". This is still a mortal sin. I truly and sincerely hope she repented and confessed. However, no matter how great her love for Daniel was, she was still responsible to love God more. One of the ways we love God is by keeping His commandments (John 14:15).