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LISBON, June 8 (Xinhua) -- A baby born to a brain-dead mother in Portugal has been regarded a "miracle" and a national record.
The birth, which took place on Tuesday at Lisbon's Central Hospital, was the longest ever survival of a foetus when the mother is brain dead, according to the medical team which worked on the case.
The 37-year-old woman, who had suffered a brain haemorrhage, had been confirmed brain dead since Feb. 20. The mother was kept alive mechanically and the baby was delivered by Caesarean section.
The baby boy weighed 2.35 kg and had been kept in gestation for 32 weeks. He was born without complications, according to the statement.
The pregnant woman had been assessed by specialists in obstetrics who deemed the foetus to be in a healthy condition.
They then consulted her family who decided to keep her body alive and go through with the pregnancy.
"We are on a journey. The baby is in the neo-natal intensive care unit. We have a premature (baby) of 32 weeks," Antonio Sousa Guerreiro, a specialist in internal medicine, told journalists at the Sao Jose hospital in Lisbon on Wednesday
The specialist added the birth had been possible due to both the "technical component and the humanistic component."
Ana Campos, one of the obstetricians involved, said the pregnant brain dead woman had had to have hormonal and nutritional support to make the birth possible.
A brain-dead Polish woman gave birth in April after being kept alive for 55 days, in another rare case. Enditem
