A baby is born to a mother with brain death for three months

Salvador weighed 1.7 kg and needed a respirator at birth.

A baby was born by Caesarean section at São João Hospital in Porto, in northern Portugal, after nearly 32 weeks of gestation for a brain mother who had been dead for three months.

The head of neonatology at the health center, Hercília Guimarães, explained that he had decided to advance the planned cesarean section this Friday because the mother had presented a "respiratory deterioration" last night.

The baby was born after 31 weeks and six days of gestation with 1.7 kg, a weight "sufficient" for his gestational age, according to Guimarães, who stated that he "was born well".

Salvador, the name given to the child, needed respiratory support at birth, although the neonatologist said it was usual in babies born at 32 weeks old.

The hospital decided to try to extend the pregnancy to 32 weeks, because this is the moment that marks the barrier between premature and moderately premature. It is already "a baby that generates less concern".

The mother had a severe asthma attack at twelve weeks of pregnancy and, after a period of induced coma, died at brain death at nineteen weeks. This is the first baby born to a brain-dead mother at São João Hospital in Porto.

A similar case occurred in 2016 in the central hospital center of Lisbon. A child was born to a mother with brain death for fifteen weeks.

(TN)