Ten months ago when the nights were longest, Ned Rice emailed total strangers to share his family’s unthinkable dilemma. These were doctors across the country who had not met and did not treat his 3-year-old daughter. Wynnie had brain cancer. This was how Rice, a Phillies assistant general manager, coped.
He had to gather as much information as he could.
“I have still to this day never googled medulloblastoma,” said Cary Rice, his wife. “Because I can’t handle it. And I’m an analytical thinker, too. But if it’s too emotional, I can’t do it.”
Everything about this felt impossible. Wynnie had lost her balance a few times — and now her parents faced a sudden and critical decision. Doctors at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) told the Rices they could not treat Wynnie with radiation; she was too young. The neurocognitive damage from radiation would prevent her from having an independent adult life. But her chances of survival were better with radiation.
Ned Rice sought a second opinion from another leading children’s hospital. They told him it would be reckless not to use the treatment known to be the best — radiation — no matter the long-term effects. Rice had negotiated player contracts worth hundreds of millions — a high-stakes process that…
