- Title: Czech doctors deliver baby girl 117 days after mother's brain-death
- Date: 2nd September 2019
- Summary: BRNO, CZECH REPUBLIC (SEPTEMBER 2, 2019) (REUTERS) UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL BRNO STAFF AT NEWS CONFERENCE CAMERA OPERATOR FILMING (SOUNDBITE) (Czech) OBSTETRICIAN FROM BRNO UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL, LUKAS HURBAN, SAYING: "Hats off to our colleagues, anesthesiologists, who perfectly ensured and prepared the patient and who made ideal conditions for us for the whole surgery." JOURNALISTS INTERVIEWING HEAD OF HOSPITAL'S GYNAECOLOGY AND OBSTETRIC CLINIC PAVEL VENTRUBA (SOUNDBITE) (Czech) HEAD OF GYNAECOLOGY AND OBSTETRIC CLINIC OF BRNO UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL, PAVEL VENTRUBA, SAYING: "The further development of the pregnancy showed that the foetus was doing very well and that it was growing physiologically. We did not feel there was any problem during the development and it could continue further. Our decision was to reach at least the threshold of 28 weeks but even better 32 or 34 weeks when the pulmonary system of the newborn was well developed and the foetus was able to breath by itself after the delivery." CAMERA OPERATOR FILMING (SOUNDBITE) (Czech) HEAD OF GYNAECOLOGY AND OBSTETRIC CLINIC OF BRNO UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL, PAVEL VENTRUBA, SAYING: "This was really an extraordinary case when the whole family stood together and behaved excellently, and without their support and their interest it would never have ended this way. They took care for the success (of the operation) and I believe they will care for the child further. It was not only the father, but also the grandmother and the aunt of the girl."
- Embargoed: 16th September 2019 15:42
- Keywords: Czech doctors deliver baby brain-dead mother University Hospital Brno pregnant woman on life support
- Location: BRNO, CZECH REPUBLIC
- City: BRNO, CZECH REPUBLIC
- Country: Czech Republic
- Topics: Health/Medicine
- Reuters ID: LVA002AUYTNW9
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: When a helicopter rushed an unconscious Czech woman who had suffered a severe stroke to hospital in April, her chances of survival were slim - and those of the fetus she had carried in her womb for 15 weeks were not much better.
And yet, on August 15, against all odds, a healthy baby girl was born by cesarean section - weighing 2.13 kg (4.7 lb) and measuring 42 cm (16.5 inches) - to her brain-dead mother, Brno's University Hospital said on Monday (September 2).
The success of the delivery would not have been possible without the support of the child's family, the head of the hospital's gynaecology and obstetrics clinic Pavel Ventruba said.
Ventruba added that the girl was now in the care of her father, grandmother, and aunt.
Doctors at the hospital said the 117 days that the baby had been kept alive in the womb - a process fraught with potential complications - were believed to be a record for the longest artificially-sustained pregnancy in a brain-dead mother.
The mother, whose identity was not revealed, had been declared brain-dead shortly after reaching the hospital, upon which doctors immediately began the struggle to save her child.
They put the 27-year-old woman on artificial life support to keep the pregnancy going, and even regularly moved her legs to simulate walking to help the child's growth.
After the delivery in the 34th week of gestation, with the husband and other family members present, medical staff disconnected the mother's life support systems and allowed her to die.
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