Search Here

A Tennessee woman battling cancer and has only a 50-percent chance of survival miraculously gave birth to quadruplets on December 30.

At 30 weeks, Kayla Gaytan and her husband, Fort Campbell soldier Sgt. Charles Gaytan welcomed their quadruplets - Lillian, Victoria, Michael and Charles, two girls and two boys.

The New Year has indeed brought both joy and heartache to the couple, as doctors are not sure how long their mother will have with them. Before conceiving the babies, Kayla was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma on Jan. 2016.

The 29-year-old mother of two went through five months of chemotherapy and was in remission. She and her husband learned they were pregnant not long after her treatment.

Kayla gave birth at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center to the quadruplets who were conceived naturally without any fertility treatment.

"It was exciting. It was nerve-wracking. But to see them when they all came out and to hear them crying, that was really exciting," Kayla said as reported by WKRN-TV.

Unfortunately, the babies came a month after they learned that Kayla's cancer had returned. She's scheduled to have her chemotherapy again.

"You think you've beat it the first time. When it comes back, you're just wondering why to get pregnant with these four babies and then, you know, something like this happens," Kayla said.

Though the doctors gave Kayla a 50-percent chance of survival over the next five years, she remains positive that she'd beat cancer the second time around. All four of her babies are expected to remain in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at the hospital for the next month and a half.

What Is Hodgkin's Lymphoma?

According to the American Cancer Society, Hodgkin's Lymphoma was named after Dr. Thomas Hodgkin, who first described the disease. It's a type of lymphoma, which is cancer that starts in the white blood cells called lymphocytes. Cancer begins when the cells proliferate out of control and spread.

This type of cancer can start anywhere but usually begins in the lymph nodes of the upper part of the body such as the chest, neck or under the arms.

About 8,500 new cases of Hodgkin's lymphoma are estimated in the United States in 2016. It's common in early adulthood, at about ages 15 to 40.