Picture: stock image.
A woman in Portugal has given birth despite being technically braindead for the past 56 days.
Catarina Sequeira, 26, suffered a severe asthma attack which should have killed her in December, but doctors have been keeping her alive since then to give her baby boy, named Salvador, a chance to live. They had been hoping she would manage to keep him going until week 32, but just days before that landmark, her health rapidly deteriorated and surgeons had to step in.
The former athlete was put into an induced coma after suffering the serious asthma attack at her home on December 26, because Portugal’s consent laws required doctors do everything they could to keep the child alive.
The hospital’s ethics adviser, Felipe Almeida, told the Observador: “Being a donor is not just about being in a position to donate a liver or heart or lung, but also being in a position to give yourself so a child can live.”
Miss Sequeira’s mother, Fatima Branco, said: “I have a bitter joy. I do not want to meet my grandson with this bitterness.”
The infant was born weighing just 1.7kg and will remain in the hospital for at least three weeks, while his mother’s funeral took place just one day after he was born.
For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.