A brain-dead Georgia woman has been taken off life support after an emergency cesarian section was performed to deliver her premature baby last week.
The family of Adriana Smith, 31, announced her baby, named Chance, was delivered on Friday after she had been kept alive on ventilators since February, according to The Washington Post.
Smith was about nine weeks pregnant when she was declared brain-dead. Georgia passed a law banning abortions after about six weeks in Nov. 2022, as reported by USA TODAY.
"I'm not saying that we would have chose to terminate her pregnancy," Smith's mother April Newkirk told 11Alive last month. “What I’m saying is, we should have had a choice."
Newkirk told 11Alive that Smith, a registered nurse at Emory University Hospital, visited Northside Hospital after experiencing intense headaches. After receiving treatment, Smith's boyfriend discovered her gasping for air and making gargling sounds in her sleep the next morning.
"They gave her some medication, but they didn’t do any tests. No CT scan,” Newkirk said. “If they had done that or kept her overnight, they would have caught it. It could have been prevented."
A CT scan found several blood clots in her brain.
After approving a procedure that would help Smith, Newkirk was told that it could not be done.
Newkirk said the Georgia LIFE Act forced the family to keep Smith alive for the remainder of her pregnancy, according to NBC News. Georgia's office of the attorney general claimed in May that nothing in the law "requires medical professionals to keep a woman on life support after brain death."
Chance was born weighing about 1 pound, 13 ounces. He is currently in neonatal intensive care unit.
Newkirk said Chance is "just fighting," but "expected to be OK," adding, "We just want prayers for him. Just keep praying for him."
