Healthy boy born by caesarean section after mother had a brain haemorrhage in February

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

A baby has been born in Portugal almost four months after his mother was declared brain-dead.



The boy, who weighed 5lb 3oz (2.4kg), was delivered by caesarean section at Lisbon’s São José hospital at 32 weeks, after his mother, 37, suffered a brain haemorrhage on 20 February.



The decision to continue with the pregnancy was made in consultation with the father.



“The foetus appeared to be in good health,” the hospital said in a statement. “The decision was taken with the family to follow through with the pregnancy.”



Luis Graça, head of the Portuguese Society of Obstetricians, said the birth was “an extraordinary feat”.



It is the longest a child has survived in the womb in Portugal after a mother has been declared brain-dead.



In January a baby boy was born in Wroclaw, Poland, after surviving for 55 days in the womb after his mother was declared brain-dead having had a tumour. The baby weighed 2.2lb (1kg). He was allowed home in April.



In 2001 a mother in Warsaw, Kentucky, who had been in a coma for eight months following a car crash, gave birth to a healthy daughter born full-term.



Last year in the UK, Colvina Jolin, 28, from Horndean, Hampshire, was in a coma for three months after suffering a brain haemorrhage, and came round to discover that her baby daughter Maia had been delivered by caesarian six weeks earlier.



And in the US a woman who had been in a coma for 10 years following a car accident was discovered to be pregnant after being raped in the nursing home where she was being cared for. She later gave birth to a boy.