Latest news with #braindeath
ABC News
4 days ago
- Health
- ABC News
Baby of brain-dead mother Adriana Smith delivered in US state of Georgia
The baby of a brain-dead woman, forcibly kept alive by doctors concerned they might breach the state of Georgia's 'heartbeat' abortion laws has been delivered in the US. Weighing just 1lb 13oz, baby Chance was born via caesarean section on June 13, and swiftly taken to the neonatal intensive care unit where he remains. His mother, Adriana Smith, was then taken off life support. What started out as a story of a young mother experiencing headaches rapidly became international news and the latest example of the consequences of laws applied by US states in the wake of Roe V Wade protections being overturned. The 30-year-old mother and nurse, was about nine weeks into the pregnancy with her second child, when she begun to experience headaches. Her mother, April Newkirk, told local news outlets that she was denied a CT scan and returned home. She woke the next day gasping for air and making gurgling sounds. Her boyfriend called 911 and she was taken to hospital where she was diagnosed with brain clots. She rapidly deteriorated and within hours, was declared brain dead. Smith's family were told by the hospital that she would need to be kept on life support to preserve her pregnancy until they could deliver the foetus due to Georgia law that applies "personhood" to any foetus whose heartbeat can be medically detected. Three months later, Ms Newkirk told local media seeing her daughter kept breathing with machines was like "torture". She said that the family visited her daughter regularly with her five-year-old son. Ms Newkirk told local news station 11Alive that the family wanted the baby but the choice should have been up to them, "not the state". This week also marked what would have been Adriana Smith's 31 birthday. Family and community members gathered at a church in Atlanta for a rally and celebration of her life where they cut a birthday cake for her and released white balloons. Prior to Chance's birth, there were major concerns for his health. Ms Newkirk told local news network WXIA that doctors told the family the foetus had fluid on his brain. She also shared concerns he would be born with vision loss or wouldn't be able to walk. The hospital, Emory Healthcare told the Associated Press it could not comment on an individual case because of privacy rules, but released a statement saying it, "uses consensus from clinical experts, medical literature, and legal guidance to support our providers as they make individualised treatment recommendations in compliance with Georgia's abortion laws and all other applicable laws. Our top priorities continue to be the safety and wellbeing of the patients we serve." Georgia's Republican Governor Brian Kemp signed a near-total abortion ban in the state, in 2019. The law, which also defines a "person" to include an "unborn child" was blocked before it took effect because it violated the right to abortion established by the US Supreme Court in its 1973 landmark Roe v Wade ruling. But when that law was overturned in 2022, it cleared the way for the state law to immediately take effect. The Georgia law bans most abortions once a 'detectable human heartbeat' is present. Cardiac activity can be detected by ultrasound in cells within an embryo as early as six weeks into a pregnancy, before many women realise they are pregnant. The Georgia law includes exceptions for rape and incest, as long as a police report is filed. It also provides for later abortions when the mother's life is at risk or a serious medical condition renders a foetus unviable. Monica Simpson, executive director of SisterSong, the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging Georgia's abortion law told the Associated Press in May the situation was problematic. "Her family deserved the right to have decision-making power about her medical decisions," Ms Simpson said in a statement. "Instead, they have endured over 90 days of retraumatisation, expensive medical costs, and the cruelty of being unable to resolve and move toward healing." In May, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr released a statement saying that Georgia's six-week law does not require medical professionals to keep women alive on life support after being declared brain-dead. "Removing life support is not an action with the purpose to terminate a pregnancy," Mr Carr's spokesperson, Kara Murray, said in the statement. Thaddeus Pope, a bioethicist and lawyer at Mitchell Hamline School of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota, said while a few states have laws that specifically limit removing treatment from a pregnant woman who is alive but incapacitated, or brain dead, Georgia isn't one of them. "Removing the woman's mechanical ventilation or other support would not constitute an abortion." "Continued treatment is not legally required." But Georgia state Senator Ed Setzler, a Republican who sponsored the 2019 law, said he supported Emory's interpretation. "I think it is completely appropriate that the hospital do what they can to save the life of the child," Mr Setzler said. "I think this is an unusual circumstance, but I think it highlights the value of innocent human life. I think the hospital is acting appropriately." A similar case took place in Texas 10 years ago when a brain-dead woman was kept on life support for about two months because she was pregnant. A judge eventually ruled that the hospital was misapplying state law, and life support was removed. Georgia's abortion ban has been in the spotlight before. Last year, ProPublica reported that two Georgia women died after they did not get proper medical treatment for complications from taking abortion pills. The stories of Amber Thurman and Candi Miller entered into the presidential race, with Democrat Kamala Harris saying the deaths were the result of the abortion bans that went into effect in Georgia and elsewhere after Roe v Wade was overturned.
The Sun
5 days ago
- Health
- The Sun
Brain-dead pregnant mum's ‘corpse' kept alive by doctors GIVES BIRTH after family had begged for her to be left to die
A BRAIN-dead mum's baby has been delivered after her family's torturous struggle with doctors to switch off her life support. Adriana Smith, 31, was nine weeks pregnant when doctors discovered she had blood clots in her brain and tragically declared her brain-dead. 5 5 5 But despite her family's plea to end her life, doctors said she couldn't be taken off life-support due to Georgia's ban on abortion. After months of agony, her baby, named Chance, was born prematurely on Friday. The little boy is being kept in the neonatal intensive care unit. Adriana's mum, April Newkirk, told local news: "He's expected to be OK. He's just fighting. We just want prayers for him." The boy's birth comes amid mounting fears he would be born with severe disabilities because of his mum's health complications. Just a couple months ago, April revealed how the foetus had hydrocephalus, otherwise known as fluid on the brain. She said at the time: "He may be blind, may not be able to walk, may not survive once he's born. "Right now, the journey is for baby Chance to survive. "Whatever condition God allows him to come here in, we're going to love him just the same." Tragic discovery Adriana Smith, 30, was nine weeks pregnant when she went to hospital in Georgia seeking treatment for agonising headaches three months ago. Love Island star reveals heartbreaking decision to have abortion just seven months after giving birth The young nurse was sent home by doctors with medication who didn't conduct a CT scan. Adriana woke up the next day with a shortness of breath and making gargling sounds, with the hospital later discovering she had blood clots in her brain. After unsuccessful surgery to relieve the pressure they were causing, Adriana was tragically declared brain-dead. The nurse has a seven-year-old son who is now without his mum, leaving Adriana's already-grieving family devastated. But the already-harrowing circumstances turned into "an absolute horror show" after Emory University Hospital told Adriana's family that despite her being legally dead, she wasn't allowed to die. This is because the hospital - where Adriana previously worked - say it's acting "in compliance with Georgia's abortion laws". The hospital demanded Adriana's body was kept alive on breathing and feeding tubes until medical staff determined the male foetus was sufficiently developed to be delivered by cesarean section. Health officials in Georgia reportedly believe that removing her from life support would violate the state's strict anti-abortion laws. The laws prohibit termination once a foetal heartbeat is detected at roughly six weeks. Despite Georgia's contentious law dubbed the Living Infants Fairness and Equality (LIFE) Act containing an exception to save the life of the mother, according to the hospital, this didn't apply to Adriana. 5 5 They say this is because her life is beyond saving. Adriana's heartbroken family hadn't made a decision on whether to switch off her life support, but have been left devastated that the choice is no longer theirs. Adriana's mum heartbreakingly told 11Alive: "This is torture for me. "I see my daughter breathing by the ventilator but she's not there." Despite Georgia's LIFE Act just about getting passed in 2019, it didn't come into effect until 2022 when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade. This is the 1973 case that determined a woman's constitutional right to an abortion. Doctors anticipated that there will be even more problems for the growing foetus, with life-support systems not designed for long-term treatment of brain-dead patients. And with blood no longer running to Adriana's brain, the organ was already beginning to decompose. Director of the maternal foetal medicine division at George Washington University at the time said: "The chance of there being a healthy newborn at the end of this is very, very small." Contentious law Legal experts have argued that the ways in which anti-abortion laws have been written have made doctors and hospitals fear potentially facing criminal charges. They also say lawmakers should have anticipated how the movement to establish what's been dubbed "foetal personhood" - where a foetus would have legal rights - would end up putting the rights of the mum below those of their unborn child. Some of Georgia's conservatives have even argued that the state's LIFE law has been misinterpreted. The state's Republican attorney general Chris Carr said in a statement that the law doesn't require doctors to keep brain-dead patients alive as turning off life support "is not an action with the purpose to terminate a pregnancy". But others like state Senator Ed Setzler have said that there's a "valuable human life" and that "it's the right thing to save it". It is not the first time an American woman has been kept on life support due to a pregnancy. In 2014, Marlise Munoz became brain-dead due to a pulmonary embolism at 14 weeks pregnant. Hospital workers had refused to honour Marlise's previously stated wish to not be kept alive on machines. The medical staff cited a state law that stopped hospitals from withdrawing or witholding "life-sustaining treatment from a pregnant patient". But Marlise's husband began a legal battle to get her taken off life support, with a judge ruling in his favour. Marlise was removed from life support before the foetus was born. By Annabel Bate ABORTIONS in Georgia are banned after around six weeks of pregnancy. They are not allowed after foetal cardiac activity, otherwise known as a heartbeat, is detected. The Living Infants Fairness and Equality (LIFE) Act prohibits abortions after this point, apart from if there are very limited circumstances like medical emergencies of if the pregnancy is a result of rape or incest. Doctors can face 10 years in prison for performing abortions illegally. When in Georgia who receive an abortion after six weeks won't face criminal charges or punishments.
Washington Post
5 days ago
- Health
- Washington Post
Baby delivered from brain-dead woman on life support in Georgia
ATLANTA — The baby of a woman in Georgia who was declared brain dead and has been on life support since February was delivered early Friday morning, her mother said. April Newkirk told WXIA-TV that 31-year-old Adriana Smith's baby was born prematurely by an emergency cesarean section early Friday, the Atlanta station reported Monday night . She was about six months into her pregnancy. The baby, named Chance, weighs about 1 pound and 13 ounces and is in the neonatal intensive care unit.
The Independent
6 days ago
- Health
- The Independent
Brain-dead mother being removed from life support after giving birth
in Ohio Adriana Smith, a brain-dead 31-year-old woman from Atlanta, gave birth on 13 June and will be removed from life support on Tuesday, according to her family. Smith was declared brain dead at eight weeks pregnant in February due to blood clots, but was kept on life support because of Georgia 's abortion law, the LIFE Act, which doesn't clearly address brain death cases. Smith's mother, April Newkirk, said that the baby boy, named Chance, was born prematurely via emergency C-section. Chance weighed just 1 pound 13 ounces at birth. He is currently in the NICU and is expected to be all right, Newkirk said. Georgia's 2019 "heartbeat law" bans abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detected, typically around six weeks, except in medical emergencies, leading to legal ambiguity in Smith's case.
BBC News
6 days ago
- Health
- BBC News
Baby of brain-dead woman delivered in Georgia, woman's mother says
A brain-dead woman's baby has been delivered by caesarean section, the woman's mother says, after the hospital said her body had to be kept on life support due to abortion law in the US state of Georgia. Adriana Smith's baby, named Chance, was born prematurely on Friday, Ms Smith's mother told local TV station 11 boy, who weighs 1lb 13oz (08kg), is being kept in the neonatal intensive care unit, said Ms Smith's mother, April Newkirk. "He's expected to be OK," she told the outlet, an affiliate of NBC News. "He's just fighting. We just want prayers for him."Ms Newkirk said her daughter, a 31-year-old nurse, would be taken off life support on Tuesday. "It's hard to process," she said. "I'm her mother. I shouldn't be burying my daughter. My daughter should be burying me."The BBC has contacted the hospital for comment. It has previously declined to comment on individual cases, but has insisted that it prioritises "the safety and well-being of the patients we serve."Ms Smith went to a different hospital in February because of severe headaches, and was given a medication and sent home, her mother previously said. But the next day, Ms Smith woke up gasping for air. Emory University Hospital determined she had blood clots in her brain, and declared her brain-dead, her mother said. At that point, her baby's due date was over three months away. But her family said doctors at Emory told them they could not take her off life support or remove devices keeping her breathing because the state bans abortion after cardiac activity can be detected, around six weeks into pregnancy. Ms Newkirk said at the time that her grandson may be blind, unable to walk or even struggle to survive because of the complications of her daughter's health. The decision to keep her on life support "should have been left up to the family", Ms Newkirk told the same NBC affiliate in May. Georgia's Republican Governor Brian Kemp signed a near-total abortion ban in the state in 2019. But the law did not go into effect until after the US Supreme Court took the decision in 2022 to overturn the Roe v Wade ruling, which had guaranteed women the constitutional right to an abortion.
