Woman diagnosed with terminal cancer during cesarean

In a moment that is usually one of happiness, the British Lois Walker, 37, received devastating news. She was diagnosed with a terminal illness during her son’s cesarean delivery in 2021.

Walker told BBC News he had stomach pains for 12 months, but doctors said it was caused by anxiety. It wasn’t until her son Ray was born by cesarean section that she was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, the most serious of the disease.

Walker, who lives in Barnsley, England, sent a written complaint to his local health post, which declined to comment citing medical confidentiality. And Barnsley Hospital also said he could not comment until a formal complaint was filed.

Walker told the BBC that she had several medical appointments at Dove Valley Health Center in Worsbrough (Greater Barnsley Area) and at Barnsley Hospital, but claims the response was that she might have irritable bowel syndrome or hypochondria.

“I don’t know what else I could have done. It was like no one wanted to hear me,” she says. “I told them ‘I feel like I’m going to die’. I wanted to be taken seriously. I felt like something was very wrong.”

The shocking discovery

When Lois Walker went to the hospital to have her child via C-section in 2021, surgeons found cancer in her ovaries, peritoneum and lymph nodes.

“My abdomen had tumors everywhere. They said it was like a sandbag that had been ripped open and scattered everywhere,” she said.

Walker has three children and says the diagnosis has raised concerns about her bonds with her newborn son.

“It’s been really, really hard,” she says. “I didn’t want to get attached to him, but he is my ray of light. My children are my purpose. [de vida]. I want to focus on leaving memories. If love could save me, I would never die.”

‘Listen to your body’

Walker’s partner Dale Wistow says the cancer “could have been detected earlier”. “It’s sickening, especially with the kids. We don’t know what the future will bring us now.”

Walker warns people to listen to their bodies and ask for help when they feel unwell.

“If a single doctor reads my case and concludes, ‘We need to do better,’ that’s all I want,” she says. “I don’t want anyone to go through what I’m going through.”