Brain-dead woman a mum

A BRAIN-DEAD woman in Italy has given birth to a baby girl.

The girl, who was born prematurely in a Milan hospital was breathing well yesterday, but doctors cautioned that it would be at least a month before the newborn could be considered out of danger.

“The baby girl’s clinical condition is stable. It’s a good sign,” said Dr Stefano Martinelli, head of the neonatal ward at Niguarda hospital. “To say with certainty if she will make it we will need at least a month.”

“She’s breathing well. She doesn’t need oxygen,” Dr Martinelli said.

The baby, named Cristina after her mother, was born on Saturday by emergency Caesarean section, two months premature and weighing about 1.5 pounds.

Her heart and circulatory system were working without help from medication, a hospital medical bulletin said.

“It’s as if she wants to justify all that has been done to bring her into this world,” Dr Martinelli said.

Cristina’s mother had been kept alive artificially for nearly three months. Doctors decided to do the delivery on Saturday after the woman’s blood pressure plunged and the foetus experienced heart rhythm problems.

The 38-year-old woman was hospitalised in March after suffering the rupture of a cerebral aneurysm, and she was soon declared brain dead. The woman spent 78 days in a brain-dead state.

A few hours after the birth, the machinery artificially keeping her alive was shut off.