Nick Cannon On Son Zen’s Treatment: ‘I Didn’t Want Him To Suffer’
Nick Cannon is further explaining why he and the mother of their son, Zen, opted out of chemotherapy treatments. The 5-month-old recently died of brain cancer.
In a conversation with PEOPLE, Cannon shared that he wanted his son to have a comfortable life no matter how short it could be.
"We started asking, ‘Is there a way to prevent this? If not, how long do we have?'" he said. “The conversations quickly turned to, 'How can we give him the best life for the time that he does have?' It could be weeks, it could be months, it could be years.”
Cannon and Zen’s mother, Alyssa Scott, ultimately chose not to have chemotherapy following his brain cancer diagnosis at 2 months old.
“We were having quality-of-life conversations,” he said. “We could have had that existence where he would’ve had to live in the hospital, hooked up to machines, for the rest of the time.”
"From someone who’s had to deal with chemotherapy before, I know that pain. To see that happen to a 2-month-old, I didn’t want that. I didn’t want him to suffer," Cannon added.
The 41-year-old has lupus and has taken a chemo drug to treat his autoimmune disease.
Cannon said he and Scott's priority was making sure Zen was always in positive spirits.
“We focused on Disneyland, our favorite place,” Cannon said. “Every month we would celebrate his birthday, just really seeing it as a victory every time he had a milestone that he was still here with us.”
Cannon previously shared on an episode of his talk show Nick Cannon that on Thanksgiving he noticed his son's health take a turn and on Sunday (Dec. 5) that was the last time he was able to be present with his son Zen before he died.
To honor his late son, Cannon got a tattoo in his honor.
“I enjoyed every moment of the experience to forever have my son right here on my rib, right here on my side as my angel,” he shared on another episode of his talk show.
BET.com offers our sincerest condolences to Nick Cannon and his family during their time of need.
