Susan Torres, pronounced brain-dead by doctors following a tumor-induced stroke in May, is being kept on life support long enough to deliver the baby she’s been carrying for 21 weeks.
Doctors at Virginia Hospital Center gave the National Institute of Health researcher’s husband, Jason Torres, the option of pulling the plug after it was concluded that Susan would not recover.
Melanoma had spread to her brain causing the stroke that rendered a cease in brain function.
Jason declined taking his wife off of life support when he learned it was possible to safely deliver a healthy baby at the 25-week mark. He believes this is what she would have wanted.
“I hate seeing her on those darned machines, and I hate using her as a husk, a carrying case, because she herself is worth so much more,” Torres said in an interview with USA Today. “But Susan really wanted this baby.
And she’s a very–how should I put this?–a willful lady. That’s probably why she’s made it this far.”
The baby appears to be in good health, but Susan’s doctors have told Jason that they haven’t heard of any other cases where brain-dead mother with melanoma has delivered a baby.
If Susan and her baby live through mid-July, Torres said, the baby could survive delivery, even if there is a higher risk of brain damage and other defects.
“There’s not a glimmer of doubt in my mind that this is what she would have wanted,” Torres said. “Any chance at all to save the baby, and Susan would have said, ‘Let’s go for it.'”
Torres resigned his position as a printing salesman and has since moved into his wife’s hospital room. The couple has another child, 2-year-old Peter, who is staying with his grandparents.
Hospital officials are not commenting on the case.
