In August 2021, Michelle Hughes received a diagnosis of a rare type of sarcoma.
Back in 2016, while she was 35 weeks pregnant with her first child, Michelle began feeling a sharp, uncomfortable pain just under the right side of her rib cage. Believing it to be a typical pregnancy symptom, she casually brought it up during a regular prenatal check-up. Her doctor suggested an ultrasound to see if her gallbladder might be the issue — a frequent concern for pregnant women.
At the time, Michelle — now 38 — was happy to have another chance to view her baby. However, the scan revealed that her gallbladder looked fine. Instead, doctors spotted something unusual: a hemangioma on her liver.
They described it as a benign, blood-filled cyst that wasn’t uncommon and probably unrelated to her pain. “You’ll have your baby,” Michelle remembers them saying, “and if the pain doesn’t go away, we’ll take another look.” They recommended a follow-up in a year, just to be cautious.
Her daughter, Juliet, was born early at 36 weeks. Michelle and her husband Ty, now 39, were quickly caught up in the whirlwind of becoming new parents. After facing infertility and the heartbreak of a stillborn son, they were finally holding a living child in their arms.
“She made me a mother,” Michelle shared with PEOPLE in an exclusive Zoom interview. “She was our first baby we brought home.”
Like many first-time moms, Michelle put all her energy into caring for her baby, paying little attention to her own symptoms. The rib pain wasn’t overwhelming — more of a lingering ache that came and went. With a newborn in her arms, ignoring it seemed natural.
Every follow-up ultrasound showed the same result: the hemangioma hadn’t changed. Life continued. Michelle returned to her job as a social worker, and the couple began fertility treatments again, eventually expecting a second daughter, Adeline.
Their daily life became even more hectic. Between parenting, caregiving, and her own nagging symptoms, Michelle kept pushing her health to the background. Occasionally, the pain got worse, prompting visits to the hospital. But doctors always gave the same explanation: “It’s still the hemangioma. Nothing’s changed. You’re fine.” And she trusted them.
In 2021, during her third pregnancy, Michelle started experiencing complications. At 35 weeks, her placenta ruptured.
“We were incredibly lucky that both of us were okay,” she says.
Their newborn son, Hatton, spent some time in the NICU but was eventually healthy enough to go home. Just days after their return, tragedy struck.
Michelle suddenly collapsed. Family members — her children, sister, nieces, and nephews — were nearby, and her husband quickly drove her to the ER.
“My heart rate had jumped to the 180s,” she says. “They took me straight to trauma and performed a CT scan right away.”
The results were staggering: her lungs were filled with countless tumors, and there were 15 cysts on her liver. Michelle recalls the doctor’s stunned reaction: “We don’t know how this happened so fast.”