Brain-Dead Woman Delivers Healthy Baby In Hungary

  • 27 Nov 2013 8:00 AM
Brain-Dead Woman Delivers Healthy Baby In Hungary
The body of a brain-dead woman (31) was kept alive at the University of Debrecen Medical and Health Science Center so that a healthy infant could be born.

Although similar cases are known in medical history, it is a major medical accomplishment. The life functions of the body were sustained long enough for several organs of the woman to remain fit for transplantation. Using organs for transplantation under such circumstances is unprecedented.

Normally, the organs cannot be kept in a condition fit enough for transplant for one or two weeks after brain death. In this case the woman’s organs remained fit three months after brain death.

A pediatrician attending the news conference on November 13 said this medical accomplishment was partly due to the fact that the fetus functioned as signaling system of a kind, indicating to the doctors that they are doing their job well.

The young woman came down with cerebral hemorrhage in April 2013, when she was in the 15th week of her pregnancy. She immediately underwent surgery and doctors fought for her life for two more days but her brain stopped functioning. The fetus however lived! The family and the doctors had to make a crucial decision – and quick.

When asked by this daily during the press conference about the human, medical and ethical dilemmas of such a case, Professor Béla Fülesdi, president of the university health center and head of the department of anesthesiology and intensive care, said it is the creed of that clinic always to give a chance to everyone. The fetus was living and moving in the womb despite the mother’s brain death. If the life-support system had been switched off, the fetus would have suffocated under the team’s very eyes. The doctors couldn’t be sure of the outcome of the treatment but were certain that they wanted to give life a chance.

The family members considered keeping the fetus alive as a way of continuing as it were the life of the mother. The medical team was also motivated by the consideration that the experiences of that medical saga could be passed on to colleagues.

Csilla Molnár, a doctor working in intensive therapy, has said that a detailed plan for treatment was worked out. The body of the woman was under almost continuous control. The body needed to be fed; her body temperature had to be maintained, blood circulation had to be stabilized, and infections had to be prevented.

She was bathed in sterile water and the air of the ward was disinfected. Molnár says problems kept popping up day after day. Only in the 20th week of pregnancy did they begin believing in success.

To prevent bedsores, the woman’s body was moved and turned over several times daily. Family members regularly visited the patient: the father of the infant and the infant’s grandparents talked to the baby.

So that the fetus shouldn’t miss human voices, the radio was always on in the intensive care unit.

In July the baby was delivered prematurely with Caesarean section. The gender and name of the baby is kept confidential. The baby is healthy and it has not developed the diseases that often mark premature babies.

The mother’s body was kept “alive” for two more days after the C-section. Her family offered for transplantation the woman’s heart, liver, kidneys and pancreas. The transplant operations have taken place successfully.

Professor Fülesdi is convinced that keeping the mother’s body “alive” was absolutely ethical for the good of the birth of a healthy baby.

Source: Népszabadság

Translated by Budapest Telegraph

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