Woman in Portugal gives birth despite being brain-dead for three months

Despite being brain-dead for three months, a woman in Portugal gave birth to a baby boy who was named Salvador.

The mother, Catarina Sequeira, was declared brain-dead after having an acute asthma attack at her home when she was 19 weeks pregnant and was put in an induced coma. The baby’s father wanted the child to be born, as did the rest of the family.

However, her condition deteriorated and on 26 December she was declared brain-dead  and for 56 days a ventilator was attached to her to enable her baby to survive in her womb.

The intention had been to wait until this Friday for the mother to reach 32 weeks’ gestation, but her respiratory condition had deteriorated and the Caesarean section was brought forward to Thursday. Thirty-two weeks was considered the period at which babies had a very high probability of survival.

The baby was born weighing 1.7kg and is expected to remain in hospital for at least three weeks.

In 2016 another baby, Lourenço, was born in Lisbon after surviving 15 weeks in his dead mother’s womb.

Via BBC