Doctor dies to save her unborn daughter
September 14, 2007 07:36am
A MELBOURNE GP refused high-level chemotherapy, ultimately sacrificing her life to save her unborn daughter.
Family and friends farewelled Dr Ellice Hammond, 37, at a funeral service yesterday, the same day anti-solarium campaigner Clare Oliver succumbed to melanoma.
Dr Hammond lost her battle with Hodgkin's lymphoma on Sunday, three weeks after daughter Mia Ellice was born nine weeks prematurely at the Monash Medical Centre, where she remains in neonatal intensive care, The Herald Sun said today.
Dr Hammond was diagnosed in the 22nd week of pregnancy and refused high-level chemotherapy that could have saved her but might have killed Mia, whose induced birth took place on August 20.
Dr Hammond had three reduced-strength chemotherapy treatments during the pregnancy, but the cancer returned worse than before each time and full-strength treatments following Mia's birth did not save her.
Husband, Peter Wojcik said he was proud of his wife's devotion to their child.
“It feels like I got robbed of a wife and a mother,” he told the Herald Sun.
“I guess she didn't expect it to go this way, and if she did she wasn't telling us.
“But she would just want what is best for Mia and for everyone to love her and carry on with life.
“Her whole life was looking forward to being a mum. She loved it.
”They have a kangaroo chair here, where they can put the baby down inside your shirt and you can lie back. And the first time Ellice tried that, she had tears coming down. She was just so happy.”
Australian marathon champion Kerryn McCann, was diagnosed with breast cancer last month and delivered her son Cooper six weeks early so she could begin chemotherapy.
Doctor dies to save her unborn daughter
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