Miracles bring mother back from the brink

“If it wasn’t for the community and Hashem, I wouldn’t have made it,” says Johannesburg mother Shira Gutnick (née Zagnoev), who almost died on the operating table before the age of 30. Prior to that, she discovered she had cancer when she was 37 weeks pregnant, gave birth, and endured “red devil” chemotherapy. Doctors had to resuscitate her during the operation, following which she was put on life support.

Today, she’s celebrating being alive and healthy, and is grateful for so many miracles. She recently hosted a seudat hodaya (meal of thanks) to celebrate her survival, and thanked every person who helped her along the way.

In June 2022, Gutnick had the picture-perfect life. She and Sroli had been married for seven years and were blessed with three-year-old daughter, Leah. Gutnick was pregnant with their second child,  a son, and had a routine appointment with radiologist Dr Russell Seider. Exhausted, she almost cancelled, but something compelled her to go.

It was at that appointment that Seider told her not to panic, but he had picked up “abnormal tissue” that needed a biopsy. Two days later, he gently broke the news she had a malignant growth in her breast. While Gutnick reeled, Dr Seider supported her – the first of many moments when she would experience “excellence in science and excellence in compassion”.

Gutnick was sent to see surgeon Dr Sarah Nietz that very afternoon, who told her that the tumour was “aggressive and fast growing”, but caught early. She then met her oncologist, Professor Bernardo Rapoport. Walking into an oncology waiting room at nine months pregnant, “I could see the shock and confusion on everyone’s faces.”

From the moment she met Rapoport, “I knew that I was in safe hands. He was G-d-sent, and G-d-guided.” He told her that she was to have her baby via caesarean section in three days, and begin chemotherapy right after her baby’s bris.

Gutnick gave birth to Dovid Shalom on 21 June 2022. “As I looked for someone to put up balloons for the bris, I was trying to book my CT scan to ascertain whether the cancer had spread. But I was able to totally separate myself at the bris, which felt like a real celebration.”

Afterwards, the contrast of emotions was vast. She called Dr Seider, who said: “You’re going to look back at this as a difficult time that you overcame.” These words comforted Gutnick in her darkest moments. “We never know how our words might light a path for others,” she says.

Three days after the bris, Gutnick headed to the Rosebank Oncology Centre. She and Rapoport made a pact that he would one day attend her son’s Barmitzvah. Gutnick had to have the chemo commonly known as the “red devil”.

A brutal chemo schedule followed, with a relentless impact on Gutnick’s well-being. Family, friends, and the community rallied to care for both mother and children, and Gutnick’s husband ably navigated this new world of a wife with cancer, a newborn, and a toddler.

A clot had formed as a result of Gutnick’s chemo port, and she was referred to Dr Ishmael Cassimjee “who was to become my vascular surgeon and my friend”. He did a procedure to dissolve the clot. Afterwards, he asked professor of haematology, Dr Barry Jacobson, to visit Gutnick. “Dr Jacobson insisted that I have my mastectomy surgery at the Wits Donald Gordon Medical Centre, because of the clot complication. Without his insistence, I wouldn’t be here.”

The surgery was scheduled for 12 January 2023. Dr Nietz and plastic surgeon Dr Dimitri Liakos were to perform it. But within seconds of the anaesthetic entering her body, they realised something was horribly wrong. The left ventricle of her heart failed because of a condition called takotsubo cardiomyopathy, also known as “broken heart syndrome”.

“Dr Nietz described it as the ‘perfect storm’. The combination of the chemo, which is damaging to the heart, the clot, and the multiple anaesthetics, plus all the stress possibly caused it,” says Gutnick.

“The doctors called for help. Miraculously, lead intensive-care (ICU) specialist Dr Liam Brannigan happened to be adjacent to the operating theatre. Had he been anywhere else in the hospital, it would have been too late. He knew this was an extremely rare condition, directing the appropriate resuscitation.”

Gutnick was put on life support. She has no memory of being between life and death. She had to be transferred to Milpark Hospital by specialised ICU ambulance. An ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) machine, which takes over the heart and lungs and is available at few hospitals, was on standby. Had Milpark been more than five minutes away, it would have been too far.

At Milpark, she was immediately assessed by cardiothoracic surgeons Dr Martin Sussman and Dr Lebo Mokotjo, and cardiologist Dr Ahmed Vachiat. “Dr Vachiat later told me that he didn’t even have time to change into scrubs, and how rare it was for a patient to move from one hospital theatre to another.”

Meanwhile, her mother alerted their tehillim group, asking them to “storm the heavens”. It was suggested to add a new name to Gutnick’s first name, done in Judaism when someone faces a life-or-death situation. “Before making a decision to add a name, my parents asked Sussman whether my condition warranted it. He said, ‘Milpark sees very sick people, but your daughter is the sickest patient right now.’”

Within a short time, 10 men arrived, and she was given the name Sarah. “While this was happening, the power of global Jewry kicked in. Thank you to this community for imploring for my health.”

More miracles followed. Overnight, ECMO compromised the flow of blood to Gutnick’s left leg. The doctors tried to move the catheter, but were unable to do so. “Just before Shabbos, my mom sent a message to please pray for the health of my leg. By the next morning, there was no longer any obstruction. There was no medical explanation. It was the power of prayer.”

She remained in critical condition, but the mastectomy was performed. It was successful, and doctors were able to ascertain that Gutnick was in remission. Eight days after her heart stopped, Gutnick woke up. “Dr Vachiat said, ‘I have no way of describing what has happened to you other than this is a miracle. Your community did something right with their prayers.’”

Two days later, she was cleared to go home. “I came home fully recovered. I needed to rest but nothing more than that, thank G-d!” Wherever she went, the community greeted her with joy. “Everyone was so invested. It felt like one big family.”

At times during her cancer journey, Gutnick wanted to be “out of her body”. “Now, every morning, I say the Shema with joy. I’m miraculously in my body. Ultimately, my story is about the power of prayer, the power of Hashem, and the good that’s inherent in all of us.”