Baby Born to Brain-Dead Virginia Woman Dies

Susan Anne Catherine Torres, born prematurely last month to a mother kept alive on life support for that sole purpose, died over the weekend.

Baby Born to Brain-Dead Va. Woman Dies (AP)

An infant born last month to a severely brain-damaged mother whose plight touched hearts around the world has died, the family said Monday. Susan Anne Catherine Torres, born prematurely on Aug. 2 after her mother was on life support for three months, died of heart failure Sunday after emergency surgery to repair a perforated intestine, a family statement said. The infant’s condition had deteriorated rapidly over the weekend, according to the family. She died at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington.

Cancer patient Susan Rollin Torres, a 26-year-old researcher at the National Institutes of Health, suffered a stroke in May after the melanoma spread to her brain. She was kept alive on life support so she could deliver the child.

A spokeswoman at St. Rita’s Church in Alexandria said parishioners were told of the child’s death during the morning Mass.
“After the efforts of this summer to bring her into the world, this is obviously a devastating loss for the Torres and Rollin families,” Justin Torres, the woman’s brother-in-law, said in the e-mailed statement. “We wish to thank all the people who sustained us in prayer over the past 17 weeks. It was our fondest wish that we could have been able to share Susan’s homecoming with the world.”

Quite sad.

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