By Elisha Fieldstadt -
NBC News
Musician Nick Cannon, former partner of singer Mariah Carey, explained that he and the mother of his 5-month-old son, who recently died of brain cancer, decided not to apply any invasive treatment to their son and chose to give him a living as as comfortable as possible, despite how short it was.
"We started to ask ourselves: is there a way to prevent it? If not, how much time do we have?" Cannon told People magazine.
"The conversations quickly turned to: How can we give you the best life for the rest of the time you have? It can be weeks, months, years," he added.
Cannon and Alyssa Scott took their son Zen to the doctor when they noticed that his breathing was irregular.
The baby was diagnosed with
brain cancer
at two months
.
Doctors placed a device on the baby's skull to drain fluid, but the tumors on his head continued to grow.
But they both decided that they would not put Zen on chemotherapy.
Nick Cannon said it was a blessing to have enjoyed his son in his final days.Bruce Glikas / Getty Images
"We had conversations about quality of life," Cannon said.
And he added: "We could have had a life in which he would have had to spend in a hospital,
connected to machines
, for the rest of his life."
"As someone who has had to deal with chemotherapy before, I know that pain. I didn't want that for a two-month-old baby. I didn't want that suffering for him," said Cannon, who suffers from lupus and has taken a chemotherapy drug to treat it.
Cannon said his and his partner's priority was making sure Zen "
was as happy as he could be
."
"We focused on Disney, our favorite place. Every month we celebrated his birthday, and it was a win for us every time he was with us," Cannon said.
Zen's health worsened after Thanksgiving.
[Parents refuse chemotherapy for their baby and swear cannabis oil will save him]
"We woke up and saw that he couldn't breathe for five or 10 seconds, and then he let out a huge gasp. You could see that he was scared. It was the scariest thing I've ever experienced," said Cannon, who announced on his show the death of his baby earlier this month.
Cannon and his wife took him to the beach, where they shared a whole day with Zen, hugging him.
Cannon said
the experience was beautiful.
Zen died on December 5.
[Liver cancer: Experts discover how to diagnose it 20 years earlier]
"It was a blessing to be able to be there. Allysa told me, 'I think I was just waiting for you."
Cannon had twins Moroccan and Monroe Cannon, 10, with Mariah Carey;
his 4-year-old son Golden and 11-month-old daughter Powerful Queen Cannon with Brittany Bell;
and had 5-month-old twins, Zion Mixolydian Cannon and Zillion Heir Cannon, with Abby De La Rosa.
