|
A brain-dead pregnant woman
who has been kept on life support for nearly three
months to give her fetus more time to develop gave
birth to a baby girl Tuesday, the woman's
brother-in-law said in Richmond.
There were no complications during delivery and the
baby "is doing well," Justin Torres wrote in an
e-mail to The Associated Press. The baby, Susan Anne
Catherine Torres, weighs one pound 13 ounces and is
13 1/2 inches long, he said. The infant was
delivered via caesarean section, the hospital said.
Susan Torres, a 26-year-old researcher at the
National Institutes of Health, lost consciousness
from a stroke May 7 after aggressive melanoma spread
to her brain. Her husband, Jason Torres, said
doctors told him his wife's brain functions had
stopped.
Jason Torres quit his job to be by his wife's side,
and last month her fetus passed the 24th week of
development - the earliest point at which doctors
felt the baby would have a reasonable chance to
survive, the brother-in-law said.
A Web site to help raise money for the family's
mounting medical bills had received about $400,000
in donations from around the world as of two weeks
ago, Justin Torres said. The family said it must pay
tens of thousands of dollars each week that
insurance does not cover.
Torres was about seven
months' pregnant when the child was delivered. Doctors had
hoped to hold off on delivering the child until 32 weeks'
gestation. A full-term pregnancy is about 40 weeks. |

Susan Torres is shown
this undated photo made available by her family.
Torres, a 26-year-old researcher at the National
Institutes of Health, lost consciousness from a
stroke May 7 after aggressive melanoma spread to her
brain. Torres, who has been kept on life support,
gave birth to a baby girl Tuesday. |