Brain-dead woman who gave birth to girl dies

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Mother with terminal cancer removed from life support after delivery
Updated: 2:45 p.m. ET Aug. 3, 2005
RICHMOND, Va. - 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 Wednesday and died, her family said.

Susan Torres gave birth to a daughter Tuesday by Caesarean section.

“This is obviously a bittersweet time for our family,” Justin Torres, her brother-in-law, said in a statement.

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.

The delivery on Tuesday went smoothly and the baby “is doing well,” Justin Torres wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press. Susan Anne Catherine Torres weighs 1 pound, 13 ounces and is 13½ inches long, he said.

The infant is being monitored in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at the Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, about 100 miles north of Richmond.

Jason Torres quit his job to be by his wife’s side, spending each night sleeping in a reclining chair next to her bed. Last month, the 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.

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.

A Web site 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 family said it must pay tens of thousands of dollars each week that insurance does not cover.

The couple have one other child — 2-year-old Peter, who has been staying with his grandparents.

“The entire staff and administration of Virginia Hospital Center, especially the physicians and nurses caring for Susan Torres and Baby Girl Torres, are delighted with the successful delivery,” the hospital said in a statement. A spokeswoman declined to release additional details.

[Trojan]

What a story.

[BADDOG]

This is truly a very sad story...as always my thoughts and prayers are with the families.

Regards