On a Saturday night in the city of Pittsburgh, resident Tonya Taylor took her son for a visit.
Taylor was a former Pitt student, and she had seen the star quarterback play at the local high school, and knew the family would need to make the trip to Pittsburgh for his surgery.
“It was an honor to see him and see him play,” Taylor said.
Tonya’s son was in cardiac arrest and had been put on life support for nearly two weeks. “
That’s when Tonya knew something was wrong.
Tonya’s son was in cardiac arrest and had been put on life support for nearly two weeks.
They were at the hospital the night before Tonya was diagnosed with the heart attack, but her son had already gone home. “
We never expected to see that come out,” Tonya said.
They were at the hospital the night before Tonya was diagnosed with the heart attack, but her son had already gone home.
“He was just so tired,” she said.
Tonyas parents had no idea the severity of their sons condition, and they had no plan for how to help him.
“I was like, ‘I’m not going to be able to go, Mommy, because he’s going to die,'” Tonya recalled.
Tony is the son of the former Pitt quarterback who lost his helmet during a preseason game in 2003.
Tony was playing for the Steelers when the helmet came off during the first half.
“If I was to say he had a stroke, it would have been a stroke,” Tony said.
In 2003, Tonya and her husband had been expecting a son, but the son was not born.
It was only when Tony heard the news that the couple had to cancel their wedding and cancel their daughter’s graduation.
“The last thing we wanted to do was lose a baby and be told, ‘We don’t have the money for your wedding,'” Tony said, adding that the loss was hard on the family.
Tony had always been a strong advocate for breast cancer research and treatment.
In the fall of 2016, Tony decided to make a pledge to help fund the familys education for her son’s post-surgery care.
That summer, Tony, her husband, and their daughter attended the annual Pittsburgh Breast Cancer Symposium.
Tony, who has a master’s degree in clinical psychology, was surprised to be invited to attend the conference, which included a presentation from Dr. David A. Anderson, a cardiologist at the University of Pittsburgh.
The symposium was held in the University City Center, which is a neighborhood in the area where the hospital is located.
At the symposium, Anderson told the audience that breast cancer is the most common cause of death in the United States.
“Our research shows that almost 80 percent of all women who get breast cancer die within six months of diagnosis,” Anderson said.
Anderson then talked about the importance of identifying women at increased risk for breast and ovarian cancer, and encouraged women to talk with their doctors about any symptoms they might be experiencing.
Tony knew her son was being treated for a lung cancer that was incurable.
“Tonya said to me, ‘You know, you should do something to help my son,’ ” Tonya remembered.
“Because if I had not done something, I would have seen my son die.”
That is exactly what Tonya did.
“My son had a lung tumor that was too aggressive to treat, and he was not responding to any other treatments,” Tonyas daughter, Rachel Taylor, told ABC News.
“In the end, he was given a ventilator and the ventilators did nothing.
They only gave him oxygen.
And he didn’t respond to any of the medications that were given to him, so he was placed on a ventolin pump.”
When Tonya first saw Tonyas son at the symphony, he looked like a young man.
“So, she had to do something, and that’s what she did,” Rachel said.
Rachel’s husband, Paul, had a heart condition that had been diagnosed when he was only 16.
The first thing he told her after seeing Tonya at the Pittsburgh symposium that morning was that his wife was going to lose her job because of the diagnosis.
“Paul and I were shocked, and we couldn’t believe it,” Rachel Taylor said of the news.
“Then we realized it was happening because of her.
So, we knew she had a choice.”
Rachel and Paul also noticed that Tonya wasn’t responding to their son’s treatment.
“She was just a shell of her former self,” Rachel told ABC news.
Paul also realized that his son was getting better.
“When he was on the ventolin, he couldn’t breathe,” Paul said.
Paul, who is also a surgeon, told his wife that Tonyas symptoms were worsening.
“At first, she didn’t understand what was going on,” Paul told ABC.
“But when she started getting sicker and sicker, it just got worse
