ATLANTA — A premature baby has been delivered from a Georgia woman who was kept on life support for months after being declared brain dead earlier this year, according to her family.
Adriana Smith, 31, had been on life support since February. Her baby was delivered early Friday by emergency cesarean section, her mother, April Newkirk, told Atlanta’s WXIA-TV. Smith was around six months pregnant at the time of delivery. The baby, named Chance, weighs 1 pound and 13 ounces and is being cared for in the neonatal intensive care unit.
“He’s expected to be okay,” Newkirk said. “He’s just fighting. We just want prayers for him.”
Adriana Smith
Smith first went to Northside Hospital in Atlanta after experiencing severe headaches. She was given medication and released, her mother said. The next morning, Smith’s boyfriend found her gasping for air and called 911.
Doctors at Emory University Hospital later diagnosed Smith with blood clots in her brain. She was declared brain dead. According to Newkirk, Smith was eight weeks pregnant when she was admitted.
Baby born after months of mother being on life support
Smith remained on life support for more than four months. Her family said they were told by doctors that under Georgia law, they could not remove the equipment keeping her alive. The state’s abortion law prohibits terminating pregnancies once cardiac activity is detected, which typically occurs around six weeks.
The Associated Press contacted Emory University Hospital for comment. The hospital did not immediately respond. It is unclear what led doctors to proceed with delivery.
Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr issued a statement Tuesday clarifying the state’s abortion law. He said it does not require hospitals to keep a brain-dead patient on life support.
“Removing life support is not an action ‘with the purpose to terminate a pregnancy,’” Carr stated.
Smith, a nurse at Emory, also had a 7-year-old son. Her family gathered Sunday with community advocates to celebrate what would have been her 31st birthday. Newkirk did not speak at the event, but later told WXIA: “I’m her mother. I shouldn’t be burying my daughter. My daughter should be burying me.”
Newkirk said her daughter would be taken off life support Tuesday.
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The woman is fortunate the hospital tried to save her baby and he may pull through. I think the hospital would be liable for damages if they had an option of saving the baby and didn’t. Who didn’t want to save the baby? I know of a lady who miscarried and was devastated. They had a funeral and the baby was interred in the cemetery like many people are. The child is a person.