Premature baby of ‘brain-dead’ 17-year-old succumbs

… doctors lose hope in teen’s recovery – Dr Norton

The 28-week-old premature baby delivered by a 17-year-old girl via Cesarean Section at the Georgetown Public Hospital has died, while doctors have given up hope of the critically-ill teenager of surviving, health authorities have confirmed.
The baby passed away on Wednesday, Public Health Minister, Dr George Norton confirmed. Meanwhile, Dr Norton, said that the teenager who is brain-dead, remains on life support, but doctors at the Intensive Care Unit of the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPHC), have lost hope she will recover from the damage caused by the pregnancy.
“It is just a question of time before she starts to reject the life support machine,” Dr Norton told Guyana Times on Wednesday.
However, he explained that due to the absence of legislation in Guyana where the plug of the life support machine can be pulled, the teen will have to endure the phase leading up to her passing.
According to the Minister, the doctors have already met with the young woman’s family and informed them of the casualties surrounding her medical condition and what they can expect.
During a recent interview with the teen’s mother, she had explained that she was told by doctors that the cause of her daughter’s condition was due to an ailment she was born with, known as Brain Arteriovenous Malformation (AMV), which is the connection of a vein to a weak cell in the brain.
As the child grows older, the chances of succumbing to the ailment also increased, since any slight pressure could cause the vein to rupture, leading to haemorrhaging and stroke.
The woman said that after the teen became pregnant and would constantly vomit, the cell broke and the bleeding began. The teen then experienced a stroke on the right side of her body 28 weeks into the pregnancy. However, an emergency Caesarean (C-Section) was done to save the teen’s unborn child.