Tough Decisions

I want to share a story so that you may see how lucky many of you are for the tough decisions you think you have to make in life.

So a woman rocks up in the Emergency Department, having been referred to us from a doctor somewhere in Whoop Whoop (definitions 2 and 5).

She has been diagnosed with Acute Promyelocytic Leukaemia. With appropriate chemotherapy, if she decides to undergo treatment, she has a reasonable chance of surviving the next 5 years. Without treatment, she won't make it past a few weeks.

Here's the tough part. She is 19 weeks pregnant. With chemotherapy, her foetus will certainly die. 

On the surface, the answer seems obvious. If mother won't survive to term, then the foetus won't survive. Either way, the foetus will die... so... take the treatment.

Then I imagined myself in her shoes. It's not just a matter of deciding to take the treatment. It's also about making the decision that will kill your foetus. Your unborn child.

Sure it's obvious, but does that make the decision any easier? I hope that I never have to find out.