Brain-dead pregnant mum's ‘corpse' being kept alive as baby grows… but family say it's ‘torture' & want her to die
Adriana Smith, 30, was nine weeks pregnant when she went to hospital in
Georgia
seeking treatment for agonising headaches three months ago.
5
Adriana Smith has been kept on life support due to being pregnant
Credit: GoFundMe
5
Adriana already has a young son
Credit: GoFundMe
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Adriana initially went to the hospital due to agonising headaches
Credit: GoFundMe
The young nurse was sent home by doctors with medication who didn't conduct a CT scan.
Adriana woke up the
next
day with a shortness of breath and making gargling sounds, with the hospital later discovering she had blood clots in her brain.
After unsuccessful surgery to relieve the pressure they were causing, Adriana was tragically declared brain-dead.
The nurse has a seven-year-old son who is now without his mum, leaving Adriana's already-grieving family devastated.
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But the already-harrowing circumstances turned into "an absolute horror show" after Emory University Hospital told Adriana's family that despite her being legally dead, she wasn't allowed to die.
This is because the hospital - where Adriana previously worked - say it's acting "in compliance with Georgia's abortion laws".
The hospital has demanded Adriana's body is kept alive on breathing and feeding tubes until medical staff determine the male foetus is sufficiently developed to be delivered by cesarean section in early August.
Health
officials in Georgia reportedly believe that removing her from life support would violate the state's strict anti-abortion laws.
Most read in The US Sun
The laws prohibit termination once a foetal heartbeat is detected at roughly six weeks.
Despite Georgia's contentious
law
dubbed the Living Infants Fairness and Equality (LIFE) Act containing an exception to save the life of the mother, according to the hospital, this doesn't apply to Adriana.
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They say this is because her life is beyond saving.
Adriana's heartbroken family hadn't made a decision on whether to switch off her life support, but have been left devastated that the choice is no longer theirs.
Adriana's mum April Newkirk heartbreakingly told 11Alive: "This is torture for me.
"I see my daughter breathing by the ventilator but she's not there."
April also revealed how the foetus - named 'Chance' by the family - has hydrocephalus, otherwise known as fluid on the brain.
This means that even if he survives the pregnancy, he could be born with severe disabilities.
April added: "He may be blind, may not be able to walk, may not survive once he's born.
"Right now, the journey is for baby Chance to survive.
5
Adriana Smith has been declared brain-dead
Credit: GoFundMe
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Emory University Hospital, where Adriana Smith, a woman who was about nine weeks pregnant when she was declared brain-dead, has been kept on life-support since February
Credit: Reuters
"Whatever condition God allows him to come here in, we're going to love him just the same."
Despite Georgia's LIFE Act just about getting passed in 2019, it didn't come into effect until 2022 when the Supreme
Court
overturned Roe v Wade.
This is the 1973 case that determined a woman's constitutional right to an abortion.
Doctors have anticipated that there will be even more problems for the growing foetus, with life-support systems not designed for long-term treatment of brain-dead patients.
And with blood no longer running to Adriana's brain, the organ is beginning to decompose.
Director of the maternal foetal medicine division at George Washington University said: "The chance of there being a healthy newborn at the end of this is very, very small."
Legal experts have argued that the ways in which anti-abortion laws have been written have made doctors and hospitals fear potentially facing criminal charges.
They also say lawmakers should have anticipated how the movement to establish what's been dubbed "foetal personhood" - where a foetus would have legal rights - would end up putting the rights of the mum below those of their unborn child.
Some of Georgia's conservatives have even argued that the state's LIFE law has been misinterpreted.
The state's Republican attorney general Chris Carr last week said in a statement that the law doesn't require doctors to keep brain-dead patients alive as turning off life support "is not an action with the purpose to terminate a pregnancy".
But others like state Senator Ed Setzler has said that there's a "valuable human life" and that "it's the right thing to save it".
It is not the first time an American woman has been kept on life support due to a pregnancy.
In 2014, Marlise Munoz became brain-dead due to a pulmonary embolism at 14 weeks pregnant.
Hospital workers had refused to honour Marlise's previously stated wish to not be kept alive on machines.
The medical staff cited a state law that stopped hospitals from withdrawing or witholding "life-sustaining treatment from a pregnant patient".
But Marlise's husband began a legal battle to get her taken off life support, with a judge ruling in his favour.
Marlise was removed from life support before the foetus was born.
What are the abortion laws in Georgia?
By
ABORTIONS in Georgia are banned after around six weeks of pregnancy.
They are not allowed after foetal cardiac activity, otherwise known as a heartbeat, is detected.
The Living Infants Fairness and Equality (LIFE) Act prohibits abortions after this point, apart from if there are very limited circumstances like medical emergencies of if the pregnancy is a result of rape or incest.
Doctors can face 10 years in prison for performing abortions illegally.
When in Georgia who receive an abortion after six weeks won't face criminal charges or punishments.
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She commended Daniel McSweeney, the director of authorised intervention at Tuam, and his team for their work with Tuam Mother and Baby Home Alliance, including 'for their openness and willingness to include us at every opportunity – it's a completely stark difference to how the Government has behaved". She said families should be able to find remains. 'They have not been fully supported, matter of fact they've been ignored for decades.' She said many people had died 'without ever seeking closure' for what happened to them or a relative in one of these institutions. 'We're losing them regularly. We have people in hospital at the moment who might not make it – they are the voice of the survivor." Mr Steede has had a sample of his DNA taken on his own accord, so that 'even if I passed away in the morning, my DNA could be kept and stored, just in case they found my cousin'. The ODAIT's website states that those who fall outside the definition of an 'eligible family member' can get in touch to 'clarify your relationship and your family's relationship to the Tuam institution' and 'to consider the possibility that there is another living family member who may be eligible to give a DNA sample'. It also states they will hear the 'concerns and wishes' of the family member, allow them to 'contribute to the consultation for the memorialisation process', and allow them to be 'kept up to date on work of ODAIT'. It says that 'if appropriate, the individual falling outside the definition of an 'eligible family member' will be directed to the Tuam Identification Programme, or an Administrative Scheme set up to take DNA samples from eligible family members who are elderly or vulnerable, and who therefore require a sample to be taken on a more urgent basis.
