Doctor helps fulfill Wisconsin grandmother's dying wish: "It's something I'll remember forever"
NEW RICHMOND, Wis. — As many celebrate the moms in their lives, one family is remembering a wish granted with the help of a doctor who acted fast.
Annie Thaemert was over the moon when she found out she was pregnant with her first child, but her mother was battling metastatic breast cancer and it was spreading quickly.
"We thought originally yeah she'll for sure be here for March, oh for Christmas maybe, but they said we're not sure she's going to make it two weeks at this point," Thaemert recalled.
With her health declining, her mother, Leya Gaynor, was fighting hard to make it to her daughter's March due date.
Gaynor told Dr. Joe Renier, her physician, that she didn't know if she was going to make it to witness her sixth grandchild's birth, but she wanted to know the gender. At the time, Thaemert and her husband decided to wait until birth to find out the gender.
With Thaemert's next ultrasound days away, Renier acted fast, wheeling an ultrasound machine into Gaynor's hospital room.
"It was really important to me, I really wanted her to meet him, but that was the next best thing," Thaemert said.
"It really almost brought a tear to my eye to whisper that information to her, just knowing that was the final thing she needed to feel comfortable with passing away," Renier said.
A few days later, Gaynor passed away being the only one who knew what her daughter was having.
Thaemert says she's forever grateful to Renier for going above and beyond for her mother.
"It means so much to me that he was willing to do that and it's something I'll remember forever," Thaemert said.
It's a sweet story of love between a grandmother and her grandchild.
Desmond is now three months old, happy and healthy with a very meaningful nickname "Dessy-Lou," created by his late grandmother.
Thaemert said she will be honoring her mom this Mother's Day by going camping along Lake Superior and starting a tradition with her son.
