|
'We won't forget her courage'
04/08/2005 08:05 - (SA)
Matthew Barakat
Virginia - A brain-dead woman who was kept alive for three months so she could deliver the child she was carrying was removed from life support and died, a day after giving birth.
"This is obviously a bittersweet time for our family," Justin Torres, the woman's brother-in-law, said in a statement on Wednesday.
Susan Torres, a cancer-stricken, 26-year-old researcher at the National Institutes of Health, suffered a stroke in May after the melanoma spread to her brain.
Her family decided to keep her alive to give her foetus a chance. It became a race between the foetus' development and the cancer that was ravaging the woman's body.
Doctors had hoped to hold off on delivering the child until 32 weeks' gestation. A full-term pregnancy is about 40 weeks.
Doctors said that Torres' health was deteriorating and that the risk of harm to the foetus finally outweighed the benefits of extending the pregnancy.
Torres gave birth to a daughter, Susan Anne Catherine Torres, by Caesarean section on Tuesday at Virginia Hospital Centre. The baby was about two months premature and weighed 812g. She was in the neonatal intensive care unit.
Dr Donna Tilden-Archer, the hospital's director of neonatology, described the child as "very vigorous." She said the baby had responded when she received stimulation, indicating she was healthy.
Doctors removed Torres from life support early on Wednesday with the consent of her husband, Jason Torres, after she received the final sacrament of the Roman Catholic Church.
"We thank all of those who prayed and provided support for Susan, the baby and our family," Jason Torres said in a statement. "We especially thank God for giving us little Susan. My wife's courage will never be forgotten."
English-language medical literature contains at least 11 cases since 1979 of irreversibly brain-damaged women whose lives were prolonged for the benefit of the developing foetus, according to the University of Connecticut Health Centre.
Dr Christopher McManus, who co-ordinated care for Susan Torres, put the infant's chances of developing cancer at less than 25%. He said 19 women who have had the same aggressive form of melanoma as Torres have given birth, and five of their babies contracted the disease. "She is very unique," McManus said. "We are overjoyed to be able to accomplish this goal, which three months ago seemed somewhat tenuous."
A website was set up to help raise money for the family's mounting medical bills, and as of two weeks ago, people from around the world had donated around $400 000. The couple have one other child - two-year-old Peter, who has been staying with his grandparents.
- AP
|
News
