Brain Dead Woman, 22, Delivers Son in Coma

Doctors in Omaha kept a pregnant brain-dead woman on life support for seven weeks to give her baby had a fighting chance at life.

Karla Perez, a 22-year old was pregnant with her second child when she suffered a brain bleed on February 8 and was later pronounced brain dead. Perez was 24 weeks pregnant. Perez's family and doctors at Methodist Women's Hospital decided to try and keep Perez's body alive in a coma until 32 weeks of pregnancy.

"It was then that we had decisions to make. Karla's baby was fine, but its gestational age was too young to consider delivery. That's when the team and Karla's family agreed to attempt to provide somatic support and maintain Karla's pregnancy until her baby reached a viable gestational age," said Dr. Andrew Robertson, at Methodist Women's Hospital Perinatal Center.

However at just about 30 weeks, Perez's condition worsened and doctors decided to perform a c-section immediately. Baby Angel weighed 2 pounds and 16 ounces at birth.

"Angel's condition remains very stable. He has no severe complications. At this time he is still in an incubator and has a feeding tube - he is not yet feeding by mouth.  It's hard for us to know the long-term outcome due to the rarity of the situation, but we are cautiously optimistic," said Dr. Brady Kerr, neonatologist at Methodist Women's Hospital Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

After the delivery on April 4, Perez survived for just two days. Her organs were donated after her death on April 9. Perez became the first women since 1999 in the US to delivery a baby while on life support.