The Murphys' little miracle: mom, baby beat the odds during life-threatening pregnancy

Citizen Airman, Oct, 2003 by Bud McKay

Senior Airman Chris Murphy was in a Seattle hospital operating room to see the birth of his daughter, Katie, at 11:34 a.m. May 1. Moments later, he told his wife, Staff Sgt. Becky Murphy, one last "I love you" before he was told to leave so the oncologist could start the fight to save Becky's life.

Becky didn't hear her husband of less than a year say those words, nor did she hear the first cries of her baby.

Against the wishes or her family and friends, as well as medical advice, Becky, who was diagnosed with aggressive cervical cancer three months into her pregnancy, put off the fight to save her own life so she could give life to her baby.

"The medical advice was to basically have an abortion, have a complete hysterectomy as soon as possible, and start chemotherapy if it was needed," said Becky, now cancer free and smiling as she watches Chris hold and talk to Katie.

"The doctors told me they could freeze my eggs and have another woman be the carrier for another baby, obviously not this one. My friends reminded me that I was adopted and that we could adopt as well."

There was a lot of pressure on Becky, and the decisions she had to make were overwhelming.

"I felt like I was all alone," she said. "My friends and family were mad--and I mean mad--at me for making the choice I did. My brother, John, called me an idiot. My mom said I was making a mistake. The oncologist said he was disappointed in my decision."

He was disappointed because if she had decided to have a total hysterectomy when the cancer was first discovered, Becky had an 85 percent chance of survival. The odds decreased to 45 percent of surviving for three to five years if she went through 34 weeks of the pregnancy and then had the hysterectomy.

"No pressure," she said, smiling and playing with her blonde pony tail. "And, good Lord, my hormones were already flying everywhere, and now they wanted me to make a decision like this?"

She turned to Chris for help.

"Oh boy, that was a big one," Chris said, never taking his two hands and deep brown eyes off of Katie as he spoke. "I mean, we had an expert telling us that, well, obviously things didn't look good. My wife wanted a baby, but having a baby meant I was going to lose my wife. For my wife to have a chance to survive meant we had to lose the baby.

"It was the most unfair thing I could ever think of."

And if things weren't already bad enough, the Murphys didn't have any private health insurance.

"Luckily, we qualified for state insurance, which covered 100 percent of the medical bills for the pregnancy and hysterectomy," Becky said.

Still, her condition forced her to leave her 10-month-old job with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and Chris was activated in February, requiring him to leave his job at an animal clinic The Murphys are both reservists with the 446th Aerospace Medicine Squadron, McChord Air Force Base, Wash.

With the loss of incomes, the Murphys would not be able to renew the lease on their apartment and were scrambling to find an affordable place to live.

Just when things were starting to look bleak, their blessings, as they call them, began to come in.

"Capt. Cory Myer (446th AMDS) had a house in Tacoma he wasn't using and let us stay there, rent free," Chris said.

Although their housing solution brought some relief, the stress of the situation began to take a personal toll an Chris and Becky's relationship. Help for this problem came in the form of Chaplain (Maj.) Carl Supplee, who saw what the Murphys couldn't see.

"He told us we weren't communicating our feelings to each other about everything that was going on," Chris said. "Once that message got through to us, things were so much easier. Once Becky made her decision to have the baby and then face the cancer, I was 100-percent behind her."

After making that decision, Becky visited her gynecologist in Olympia and perinatologist in Seattle every two weeks. At the perinatologist's office, the doctor would do an ultrasound to check on the baby's development. The plan was to wait until the 30- to 32-week point--or a little more than seven months--to do a Cesarean section. That was about the earliest the baby's lungs would be strong enough and the latest the oncologist wanted to wait for the hysterectomy.

"Once I made the decision to go on, we quit worrying about it," Becky said. "We buried a lot of worry until close to the end (of the pregnancy). We tried to just roll with the punches."

Everything went fine until the 32-week mark, when Becky went in for what she thought would be her last ultrasound. The perinatologist said Katie's lungs were still too immature.

"That was such a huge blow to us," Becky said. "We were all geared up and ready, but now we'd have to wait a little longer."

Finally, at the 34-week mark, doctors made the decision that the baby was strong enough to be born. Becky was given a general anesthetic, since the hysterectomy would be done the moment the Cesarean was complete.

Chris said the Cesarean went as planned. At birth, Katie weighed 5 pounds, 5 ounces and measured 17 5/8 inches long.