An Illinois family is facing the battle of their lives. The baby, his mother and his grandfather all suffer from different life-threatening illnesses and they are braving this battle together.
Baby George developed a lung infection following his mother Lucy Eliopulos' brain cancer diagnosis last November. Months before this and while George was still in his mom's womb, his grandfather Jim Mandros learned his brain cancer was back after being in remission for 10 years, ABC News reported.
Days after George was born, his mother sought a consult and an MRI when she experienced double vision. Doctors told her she had astrocytoma, a grade III tumor in the brain, and needed surgery as soon as possible.
Doctors operated on Eliopulos nearly three weeks after giving birth. She also finished her radiation and chemotherapy last Feb. 14 and will still have to undergo chemotherapy maintenance.
All throughout her ordeal, Eliopulos went to see her baby on another floor at the Loyola Medical Center. "[George] had a life-threatening bloodstream infection, to the point where at any point, he could have died," intensive care pediatric doctor Astha Sharma said, as per Eyewitness News.
Mandros, on the other hand, will need five chemotherapy cycles to fight his brain cancer's return. "I made a deal with God that if he gets my daughter and grandson through this, I'll raise a lot of money and fight this crap," the grandfather said.
Mandros, however, is rooting big time for Eliopulos, whose brain tumor is more aggressive. The father-daughter pair shares the same doctor. "I wish I could take her tumor and put it in my head," Mandros said, as per Cosmopolitan.
Meanwhile, George is currently back home from the hospital with his dad and two older sisters. His prognosis is improving but his mom's and grandpa's conditions remain uncertain.
The family has a GoFundMe page for Lucy to cover for her treatments. She needs to win over this cancer and return home to her husband and three kids.
