“There Is No Way I Could Kill A Healthy Baby” A Young Mother Declines Cancer Treatment To Save Her Unborn Daughter

Ashley Bridges, a 24-year-old mom with malignant bone cancer, has accepted that she may die within the year because she refused to abort her 10-week-old daughter in order to undergo chemotherapy.

Bridges explained her decision to a local CBS station saying “There’s no way I could kill a healthy baby because I’m sick.”

The California mom first suspected something was wrong last December when her right knee began to swell and ache. Nearly three months into her pregnancy, Bridges learned that she had a large tumor measuring over 10 centimeters in her femur.

The doctor recommended that she undergo chemotherapy then a surgery to remove the tumor and replace the knee. Bridges elected to have the surgery and receive the chemo following the surgery.

According to a Give Forward crowd-funding page set up in March, doctors advised her that chemotherapy could be administered during pregnancy. However Bridges later said in an interview that  the doctors recommended she abort her baby in order to receive the chemo treatments. She chose to wait until after her daughter’s birth instead.

Eight months into the pregnancy, doctors informed Bridges that delaying the treatment had allowed that cancer to spread to her hips, spine and even her brain cause intermittent blindness.

Doctors have given her less than a year to live. Bridges stands by her choice even as she faces the prospect of leaving behind healty two-month-old Paisley, her six-year-old son Braiden and her fiancé. “Maybe I’m not supposed to be her and she is,” summed Bridges.

Friends call Bridges a hero. Together they have raised $35,508 to cover her medical costs. Family members say they are praying for a miracle.