On August 15, at a hospital in Brno, Czech Republic, a healthy baby girl, 2,13 kg, named Eliska, was born by caesarean section.
Eliska's birth, however, is not common. This is because the little girl was born to her brain-dead mother, who held her in her womb for 117 days.
Eliska's mother was airlifted to hospital last April at the age of 27 after suffering a severe stroke.
The doctors gave little chance of survival to both her and the fetus who was pregnant for 15 weeks.
Eventually, the little one overturned all the predictions and managed to be born.
According to the University Hospital of Brno in the Czech Republic, the 117 days that managed to keep the baby alive in the womb is believed to be a new record: it is the longest-term artificially supported pregnancy while the mother is brain dead.
The 27-year-old woman, whose details were not disclosed, was found to be brain dead shortly after being transported to the hospital. Immediately the doctors started a fight to save the fetus. They put her in mechanical support and a physiotherapist moved her legs at intervals, imitating walking, in order to help the baby's development in this way as well. The nurses were talking to the fetus and his grandmother was reading him stories, according to chief anesthesiologist Roman Gall.
After the baby was born, in the presence of her husband and other family members, the medical staff disconnected the machines that kept her alive.
"It was a really great case, where the whole family was together; without their support and interest, things would not have ended this way," said Pavel Ventura, head of the hospital's gynecology and obstetrics department.
Eliska remained in the hospital for another two weeks, until she was discharged and her father took her home to meet her older brother. She is now growing up with the help of her aunt who is breastfeeding her since she recently had a baby of her own.