Team USA hockey star opens up about miraculous lung cancer recovery

Feb 12, 2018 | Shanda Blackmon, M.D., M.P.H. | @ShandaBlackmonMD

As reported by Fox 9 News: Jeff Baillon
Posted: Feb 08 2018 07:47PM CST

Rachael Drazan-Malmberg's stride chewed up ice from Minnesota to China, her wicked slapshot powering the University of Minnesota to a Frozen Four appearance and a spot on world champion Team USA--but two years ago, she came face to face with an opponent the likes of which she'd never seen before.

One morning in the spring of 2016 she woke up with some pain in her ribs--stiffness from a workout, or so she thought. She saw a doctor when it persisted, but they couldn't find anything wrong.

“She was pretty optimistic that it wasn’t going to be anything,” her father, Mike Drazan said.

Then came a diagnosis the fitness crazed, eat-all-the-right-foods 31-year-old mother never expected: lung cancer. And it had already spread to her brain.

Read the full story and watch the video on Fox 9

Rachael Drazan-Malmberg with her husband and daughter.