EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was reported in collaboration with the Global Health Reporting Center with support from the Pulitzer Center.
Vita Sara Blechner’s life changed on a Saturday afternoon. The middle school librarian was home in Oceanside, New York, when she felt shooting pains in her back. After an acid reflux pill couldn’t soothe the fiery feeling, her husband suggested a trip to the emergency room.
It was March 7, 2020, just days before Covid-19 would turn New York City’s hospitals into something approaching a war zone. If the doctors knew what was coming, they didn’t let on. They were cool and collected as they put Blechner, then 67, through a sonogram and a CT scan. But the pictures turned her world upside-down.
“They said I have a tumor on my pancreas. And I said, ‘No, it can’t be. This can’t be happening to me. I don’t drink. I don’t smoke. I’m leading a healthy life.’”
After an anxious two days in the hospital, Blechner headed home and weighed her options. There weren’t many. Pancreatic cancer is notoriously unforgiving: Just 1 in 4 patients lives a year after their diagnosis. Just 1 in 10 makes it two years.
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