Goalie Barrasso Tells of Daughter’s Cancer Treatment

Penguins goaltender Tom Barrasso has returned to practice after spending the last six weeks in Los Angeles, where his 2 1/2-year-old daughter has been undergoing treatment for cancer.

Barrasso held a news conference Monday to discuss for the first time the burden he and his wife, Megan, have endured since the girl’s condition was diagnosed July 1. He requested that the subject be placed off-limits after the briefing.

“I want to look ahead, be positive and put the last six weeks behind us,” Barrasso said. “Now that the immediate danger has passed, we’d like to get on with the rest of our lives. Her condition is the best it’s been. She has a 50% chance for long-term survival. When she was diagnosed, they gave us a 15% chance.”

Barrasso’s daughter, Ashley, underwent chemotherapy and a Feb. 23 bone marrow transplant at Childrens Hospital in Los Angeles. She and her mother were expected to return to their Pittsburgh home Thursday, and Ashley will start a long recuperative program.

“When she comes home we’re going to go on the assumption that she’s cancer-free and is going to grow up to be a normal, healthy kid,” Barrasso said. “We may have to reevaluate that, but for now we’re assuming she’s healthy.”

The biggest scare in Ashley’s treatment came when she had respiratory failure March 1 and had to be placed in the intensive care unit.

“It didn’t look as though she was going to make it at that point,” Barrasso said. “That was as terrified as I’ve ever been of anything in my life.

“You don’t know adversity until you face it. No one in my family has died and no one very close to me has. We came close to it with my daughter.”

After Ashley’s condition was diagnosed, Barrasso, 24, said he considered taking a year’s leave from hockey. He decided to play and said his career helped keep some balance in his life.

Barrasso broke his right hand four games into the season and wound up missing nearly two months. He returned Dec. 9 but said his concern about Ashley became more distracting after she underwent surgery in January.

“That was when we knew she was going to have to go to Los Angeles,” Barrasso said. “There was a reasonable chance she wasn’t going to come back from Los Angeles.”

He received permission to leave the team Feb. 9 and said his family was boosted by cards and gifts from Penguins fans.

“Until you go through something like this and have people support you the way my wife and I have been supported, you’ll never know how much it meant to us,” Barrasso said.

Barrasso ran for conditioning during his time in California but said his balance and puck vision are lacking. He isn’t sure if he’ll be ready to play in any of the Penguins’ last seven regular season games.

Barrasso admitted that Ashley’s illness has helped him place his career in perspective.

“Hockey is the second most important thing in my life,” he said. “My family is No. 1.

“My wife is a very strong person. She had a baby through this, she’s dealt with me as a professional athlete through this and I’m a very lucky man to be married to her. It’s been very hard on our marriage but it’s brought us much closer together.

“(Ashley) has been a trouper. It’s a very unfair thing for children to be sick. I don’t think we could have asked for anything more from her. She’s put up with all the treatments and done a better job than any adult would be capable of doing.”