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Monday, September 12, 2005

This. Just. Sucks.
Posted by Jill | 2:48 PM

I wrote a while back about the case of Susan Torres, a brain-dead woman whose body was being kept alive long enough for her to deliver the baby she was carrying.

The baby was born alive last month, and it seemed that it was about the best case of making lemonade out of lemons that could happen in such a tragic case.

But alas, 'twas not to be:

An infant born last month to a severely brain-damaged woman has died after emergency surgery to repair a perforated intestine, the family said Monday.

Susan Anne Catherine Torres, born prematurely on Aug. 2 after her mother was on life support for three months, died of heart failure Sunday, a family statement said.

The infant’s condition had deteriorated rapidly during the weekend, according to the family. She died at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington.

[snip]

The baby’s father, Jason Torres, had made the decision after his wife lost consciousness to keep her on life support for the sake of her fetus.

The pregnancy became a race between the fetus’ development and the cancer that was ravaging the woman’s body. Doctors at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, where the baby was born, said that Torres’ health was deteriorating and that the risk of harm to the fetus finally outweighed the benefits of extending the pregnancy.

The mother died shortly after her daughter’s birth when she was taken off life support. The baby was about two months premature and weighed 1 pound, 13 ounces.

There was no immediate indication why the baby’s health deteriorated. A spokeswoman at Children’s National Medical Center would not comment.
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