Being a professional cyclist with an optimistic disposition and an adventurous spirit comes in handy when, after having a seizure at work and waking up in a hospital, you learn you have a large brain malignant tumor.
This happened to Chris Baccash in December 2019, when he was 27. He had a diffuse astrocytoma, a slow-growing brain tumor that typically affects young adults. The course of action: two surgeries with neurosurgeon Donald M. O'Rourke, MD, at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, seven weeks of daily proton radiation, and then a year of oral chemotherapy.
It would have been understandable for the Doylestown, PA, native to feel despondent, afraid, or worried about the road that lay ahead. But he had a different reaction to the news.
