On Aug 15, 2019 a healthy baby girl was born by Caesarean section to an unconscious Czech woman (let’s call her "Dora").
This was unusual because "Dora" had been declared brain dead 117 days earlier.
On April 20, 2019, Dora suffered a stroke and was rushed to the hospital.
She was declared dead on arrival
Dora was 15 weeks pregnant.
Unable to save Dora, the doctor's turned their attention to saving her baby.
Unfortunately, at 15 weeks, her fetus would not be able to survive outside the womb.
So the doctors decided to try to keep Dora's body alive long enough for her baby to be able to survive outside the womb.
The doctors put Dora on artificial life support: mechanical ventilation, a feeding tube, and mechanical blood circulation.
And it worked!
On April 15, 2019, Dora gave birth to a healthy 4.7 lb girl.
Dora's case is just one of several advances in fertility medicine that are not widely known.
In the "Uterus of the Dead" series, I will be covering recent advances in fertility research and medicine, including:
in vitro gametogenesis
polygenic risk scores
artificial wombs
surrogacy tourism
IVF
DIY fertility research
cloning
uterus transplants
childbearing in the elderly
egg /embryo cryopreservation
alternative family structures
causes of birth rate decline
consequences of birth rate decline
barriers to research
fertility prizes
If I don't cover something you think important, please let me know!
Questions, comments, and suggestions are welcome.