In a rare case, a brain-dead woman in Georgia gave birth to a premature baby boy through a C-section while being kept on life support, her family said. Doctors kept the mother, Adriana Smith, on life support in line with the US state of Georgia’s abortion laws.The baby, named Chance, was born on Friday and is currently being cared for in the neonatal intensive care unit. He weighed 1lb 13oz (0.8kg) at birth, the woman’s mother, April Newkirk told local TV station 11 Alive.“He’s expected to be OK,” Smith’s mother told the outlet. “He’s just fighting. We just want prayers for him,” she added.Newkirk said her daughter, would be taken off life support on Tuesday (local time). “It’s hard to process,” she said. “I’m her mother. I shouldn’t be burying my daughter. My daughter should be burying me,” she added.Earlier in February, Adriana Smith, a 31-year-old nurse visited a hospital with severe headaches but was given medication and sent home, according to Newkirk.“They gave her some medication, but they didn’t do any tests. No CT scan,” Newkirk told 11Alive in May. “If they had done that or kept her overnight, they would have caught it. It could have been prevented,” she added.The next day, Smith woke up gasping for air. She was rushed to Emory University Hospital, where doctors found blood clots in her brain and declared her brain-dead.At the time, Smith was over three months away from her due date. However, her family said doctors told them they could not take her off life support or remove the breathing equipment due to Georgia’s strict abortion law, which bans termination once fetal cardiac activity is detected, usually around six weeks into pregnancy.Newkirk said her grandson may face serious health issues including possible blindness and difficulty walking or survival challenges due to her daughter’s health complications, BBC reported.She had earlier also expressed frustration that the decision to continue life support wasn’t left to the family. “This decision should’ve been left to us. Now we’re left wondering what kind of life he’ll have — and we’re going to be the ones raising him,” she had earlier said.What is Georgia’s Heartbeat Bill?Georgia’s Heartbeat Bill, passed in 2019 and enforced since July 2022 bans abortion once embryonic cardiac activity is detected, typically around six weeks gestation. The legislation became effective after the US Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v Wade, which had previously guaranteed women’s constitutional right to abortion.
