Brain-Dead Woman Kept 'Alive' For 54 Days To Deliver Boy

She was brain dead, but her body was kept alive by doctors in Nebraska for 54 days, so that she could deliver Angel, her baby boy, according to foxnews.

Karla Perez was 22, but two days after the delivery of her 2-pound-12.6-ounce boy at Methodist Health System in Omaha, she died, earlier this month.

According to the hospital, a team of over 100 doctors, nurses and staff worked on keeping her alive and finally went in for a cesarean baby.

"Our team took a giant leap of faith," Sue Korth, vice president and COO of Methodist Women's Hospital, announced the successful procedure Thursday. "We were attempting something that not many before us have been able to do."

Karla was afflicted with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and knew that pregnancy would be difficult, according to her obstetrician Dr Tifany Somer-Shely. She had a healthy girl three years ago, and did not expect any problem. She stopped her medication while trying to fall pregnant, according to 9news.

One of the doctors, Todd Lovgren, said that the staff was forced to prolong her pregnancy. "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," Lovgren said, according to wqad.

On February 8, Karla got severe headaches, and suddenly fell in her house at Waterloo, Nebraska. She had severe headaches, and got a brain bleed.

She was pregnant by just 22 weeks, and could not be taken out or survive out of the womb. "it was then that we had decisions to make," said Dr. Andrew Robertson at the Methodist Women's Hospital.

The doctors hoped that they could keep Karla alive for 32 weeks, so that they could deliver her baby after full term. Yet her body deteriorated just two weeks before, so that Angel was delivered on April 4.

As she was put in an incubator, and was fed through a tube, the team confessed Thursday. "We are cautiously optimistic," said neonatologist Dr. Brady Kerr.

The baby is still in NICU. The family around him has tried to keep him happy with the smell of his mother's things.

Three organs of Karla have helped to save three people waiting for a transplant.