Doctors in Nebraska prolonged the life of a
brain dead woman for 54 days so she could
deliver a baby boy named Angel.
Karla Perez, 22, died two days after the
delivery, the Washington Post reported late
Friday. Angel weighed just 2 pounds, 12.6
ounces at birth.
The last time a brain-dead woman in the
U.S. delivered a baby was 1999, the paper
said.
Baby Angel was delivered earlier last month
at Methodist Health System in Omaha.
The hospital said a team of more than 100
doctors, nurses and staff kept Angel's 22-
year-old mother Karla Perez alive for 54
days -- just long enough to deliver the baby
via cesarean section.
"Our team took a giant leap of faith," Sue
Korth, vice president and COO of Methodist
Women's Hospital, said in a statement
Thursday announcing the successful
procedure. "We were attempting something
that not many before us have been able to
do."
Perez collapsed in her home in Waterloo,
Nebraska, on Feb. 8 after complaining of
severe headaches. Doctors later determined
she had suffered a brain bleed.
With her baby at just 22 weeks -- too young
to survive outside the womb -- "it was then
that we had decisions to make," said Dr.
Andrew Robertson at the Methodist
Women's Hospital.
Doctor's had hoped to sustain Perez long
enough to deliver her baby at 32 weeks, but
the young woman's condition deteriorated
two weeks shy of the target date so Angel
was delivered on April 4.
Angel was in an incubator and feeding
through a tube, the hospital group said
Thursday. "We are cautiously optimistic,"
said neonatologist Dr. Brady Kerr.
The baby is still in NICU and his family
surrounded him with his mom's things
hoping that her scent will keep the baby
comfortable.
As for Karla, her organs helped save three
people who were waiting for a transplant.
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