Man Hands Foul Ball Catch to Terminally-Ill Mom

John Oberg fought to keep his mom on chemotherapy.

ByABC News
August 21, 2014, 4:08 AM

— -- John Oberg was amazed to catch a foul ball a Detroit Tigers game last week, and promptly handed it to his mother.

Though the catch was great, what was most surprising was that he was at a game with his mom at all. He didn’t expect her to live through the winter.

In January, Karen Oberg was given less than three months to live with stage IV lung cancer. But she was determined to fight it. So when her insurance company stopped covering her chemotherapy mid-treatment, her son launched a Change.org petition.

The confusion was eventually resolved, but John Oberg was terrified that the lapse in his mother’s care would cause the cancer to worsen.

“To just hear the doctor say the words, ‘Your results look great,’ just filled my heart with joy,” John Oberg said of his mother’s recent CT scan.

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PHOTO: Karen Oberg, 59, has stage IV lung cancer but has had "no evidence of disease" for her last two scans.
Karen Oberg, 59, has stage IV lung cancer but has had "no evidence of disease" for her last two scans.

Karen Oberg, 59, had “no evidence of disease” at her August scan, according to her son. Doctors expect her stage IV lung cancer to come back eventually, but for now, the pair are enjoying their time together.

The Tigers game was the first baseball game the two had attended in the last two years, John Oberg said. Though there were more than 4,000 people in the stands, the foul ball came hurtling toward the 27-year-old, who stretched out his gloved hand and caught it.

“I handed it off to my mom immediately because I knew it would mean a lot to her,” he said.

Karen Oberg did a little wave for the cameras, and the sweet moment was declared the official “play of the game,” John Oberg said.

“I did not think that we’d be where we are now and I’m so overjoyed that we are,” he said.

PHOTO: John Oberg started a Change.org petition when his mother's health insurance company stopped paying for her chemotherapy last winter.
John Oberg started a Change.org petition when his mother's health insurance company stopped paying for her chemotherapy last winter.