22-year-old Karla Perez and her partner wanted a baby, but at week 22 of her pregnancy, the young woman suffered a bleeding in the brain that left her brain dead.
Karla’s family and the medical staff at Methodist Health System in Nebraska faced an extremely difficult task: how to keep the woman alive so that the baby could develop and be delivered.
Berta Jimenez holds her grandson, Angel. Credits: Washington Post
A team of more than 100 nurses and doctors were caring for Perez and her family, who spent days and nights at her bedside.
“You can’t be a part of this team without being affected emotionally.
“Her family’s resiliency throughout this whole thing, with her grim prognosis and the reality of her situation — they never stopped hoping, and they never stopped praying,” Somey-Shely said.
Doctors performed a miracle as they managed to keep Perez alive for 54 days, and on April 4, doctors delivered a healthy baby boy via Caesarean section. The woman’s relatives decided to give the child a symbolic name – Angel.
Speaking about the successful operation, Todd Lovgren, a doctor at Methodist Women’s Hospital Perinatal Center, said:
“At 22 weeks, the baby can’t survive outside the uterus or outside of the womb, so if we were going to try and give baby Angel any chance of survival, we would have to try and prolong Karla’s pregnancy for as long as possible.
“Karla’s family asked us to try and prolong Karla’s life and try to maintain her as long as possible for Angel’s benefit.”
“Pregnancy was so important to her and her partner that she chose to go off all these medicines while trying. They were very excited to have this baby.”
Meanwhile, the medical staff at the hospital confessed that they had never witnessed a case like this before. According to the literature search they conducted, there have only been 33 documented cases since 1982 of brain-dead women kept alive until they delivered babies.
Perez donated her liver, kidneys and heart.
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