A woman in the Czech Republic gave birth to a healthy baby girl 117 days after the mother was declared brain-dead.
Doctors at the University Hospital in Brno delivered the 4.7-pound, 16.5-inch baby by Cesarean section on Aug. 15, the Independent reported. The artificially sustained mother kept the fetus alive for nearly four months in the womb.
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The 27-year-old mom, whose name hasn’t been revealed, suffered a severe stroke and brain hemorrhage in April. She was flown to the hospital by helicopter, but was declared brain-dead shortly after arriving, prompting doctors to fight against the odds to save her baby.
They put her on life support, and regularly moved her legs to mimic walking in an effort to stimulate the baby’s growth. The infant was delivered 34 weeks into gestation with family members present, at which time medical staff disconnected the mother’s life support and allowed her to die, according to News 18.
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“This has really been an extraordinary case when the whole family stood together … without their support and their interest, it would never have finished this way,” Pavel Ventruba, head of gynecology and obstetrics at the hospital, told reporters at a press conference.
The baby girl is now living with her father, ABC News reported.
In a similar case two years ago, a 21-year-old Brazilian woman who suffered a stroke was kept on life support for 123 days — the longest ever artificially sustained pregnancy — so she could deliver twins.