It's just about every soon-to-be mother's worst nightmare: getting diagnosed with cancer, while pregnant.
When it happened to Jenni McCormick, her options were not good. But thanks to generous blood donors and a talented medical team, this scary story got a happy ending.
This week, McCormick got to play with her healthy two-year-old daughter at the park, almost exactly three years after getting unimaginable news. It happened at a regular checkup in her second trimester.
"My blood work was completely off," McCormick said. "My immune system had completely jumped ship."
It was leukemia, which in many cases means choosing the mother's life or the baby's. Her doctors said they couldn't treat her without harming her unborn child. But her fast-moving, aggressive cancer could kill her before the baby came to term.
They had gone through years of fertility treatments, and were desperate to try anything. So they ended up at Stanford Medical Center.
"They told my family and my friends that they didn't think I would make it back," McCormick said. "Let alone my daughter. And somehow we both did."
45 days in the hospital, two to three blood transfusions a day, and four rounds of chemo later, the McCormicks have not just one survivor, but two. And a lot of gratitude for those who made it possible.
"If it hadn't been for the many blood donations I had, there's no way I would have made it through that," McCormick said. "You never know when it's going to happen to you or someone you love. So it's something I feel that everyone should do, that can."
McCormick has been a regular blood donor since she started going with her dad at 16. For her, it's come full circle.
"Just to have this happen, you go, 'Ok, well, you know, karma.' I get some of that blood back now!"
Vitalant is always looking for donations, and has experienced critical shortages in 2022. To make an appointment to donate blood, click here.
