Samantha Knapp Had Emergency Brain Surgery While Pregnant, and Three Days Later Her Son Nico Was Born at 27 Weeks

Samantha and Chris Knapp married on Halloween 2025 and learned in March that they were expecting their first child. By late August, the Hudson Valley newlyweds were living through two emergencies at once. Samantha, 36, had emergency brain surgery on Aug. 24 while pregnant, and three days later their son, Nico, was delivered by emergency C-section at 27 weeks.

Nico is still in the neonatal intensive care unit, News 12 reported on Nov. 9. Samantha has been diagnosed with grade 4 glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer, and her family is hoping the baby can come home by Christmas.

Three Days From Paralysis to the Operating Room

According to News 12, Samantha’s health declined fast during her second trimester. Within three days she lost movement on the left side of her body. Surgeons operated on Aug. 24 and found a high-grade brain tumor.

Doctors had hoped the mass would turn out to be benign, the Hudson Valley Post reported. Instead, the diagnosis was glioblastoma, which News 12 describes as aggressive and incurable.

Before the diagnosis, Samantha spent 16 years helping crime victims and people with mental health needs, the station reported. Chris is a Marine Corps veteran who has spent about ten years breeding and training dogs through his business, Von Wolfenfels K9, and who has worked with local nonprofits to place puppies with veterans and first responders.

A Baby Delivered Three Days Later at 27 Weeks

Nico’s birth was planned around his mother’s treatment. According to the Hudson Valley Post, he was born more than three months early so Samantha could start cancer treatment right away. News 12 says doctors delivered him by emergency C-section three days after her surgery.

Babies born that early are considered preterm, which the March of Dimes defines as birth before 37 weeks of pregnancy. The nonprofit says their lungs are often not fully developed, which is why breathing problems are common. Respiratory distress syndrome is most frequent in babies born before 34 weeks, and some babies receive surfactant, a substance that keeps the lungs’ air sacs open.

That fits what News 12 describes for Nico, who is on oxygen and a feeding tube. The March of Dimes explains that oxygen can be delivered through a CPAP machine, which uses small tubes in the nose, or through a ventilator that breathes for the baby. Feeding often starts through an IV, then moves to gavage feeding, in which breast milk or formula goes through a tube in the nose or mouth into the stomach. A speech or occupational therapist can later help a baby learn to breastfeed or take a bottle.

Other conditions the nonprofit lists as common in preterm babies include apnea, jaundice and anemia, and an eye condition called retinopathy of prematurity, which is most common in babies born before 30 weeks. Preterm babies may need longer hospital stays and regular checkups afterward, the page says. It does not give a typical length of stay and tells parents to ask the care team about their own baby.

What Grade 4 Glioblastoma Treatment Involves

The Glioblastoma Foundation describes the disease as a fast-growing tumor of the brain’s glial cells, also called a grade 4 astrocytoma. Standard care is surgery to remove as much of the tumor as is safe, followed by radiation, typically five days a week for six weeks, and a chemotherapy drug called temozolomide, the foundation’s patient guide says.

Samantha’s treatment has followed that outline. She has completed 30 radiation treatments, and the Hudson Valley Post reports she continues taking chemotherapy pills. News 12 counts one round of chemotherapy so far, with more ahead. She is also working to regain mobility and has ongoing MRI scans.

The foundation notes that glioblastoma is most often diagnosed around age 65, though it is increasingly seen in adults under 40. It cites the National Cancer Institute for about 15,000 diagnoses a year in the United States.

A GoFundMe That Passed $130,000

The family’s costs grew quickly. Samantha’s short-term disability is running out, News 12 says, and Chris has left work to care for her full time while Nico remains in the hospital.

A family friend, Filomena Vasapolli, started a GoFundMe to cover medical bills, NICU costs and daily living expenses, according to the Hudson Valley Post. It had a $100,000 goal and raised more than $107,900 within a few days of the Oct. 27 report. By the time Mid Hudson News covered the family on Oct. 28, the total was above $110,000. News 12’s Nov. 9 report put it at more than $130,000, and the couple used the interview to thank everyone who donated, shared or sent well wishes.

Local businesses joined in. Ridge Ranch in Patterson, where Chris has worked, posted that he had regularly helped with chores and officiated the owners’ wedding, and asked the community to show up for the family, the Hudson Valley Post reported.

What the Knapps Are Hoping For

The wish stated most plainly is a short one. The family is praying Nico comes home for Christmas, Samantha told News 12, and Chris has been recording videos so Nico can one day understand what his parents went through.

Samantha also spoke about what she wants her son to know: that she was there for as long as she could be, that she loved him and that she never gave up. Chris said everything now comes down to his wife and his son.

Another mother on this site, Hannah Hearn, was diagnosed with eye cancer while pregnant and is recording videos and letters for her baby girl. Another NICU family, the parents of Baby Quinn Hackett, born at 25 weeks, hoped to bring her home by Thanksgiving.

For now, the days are measured in NICU updates and treatment schedules. The couple told News 12 that the long stay is taking a toll, and that they are just starting their lives and a family without knowing how much time they will get together.

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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.

Image: Peter K Burian – CC BY-SA 4.0/Wikimedia Commons