A pregnant woman in Georgia, who was declared to be brain dead, is kept alive by Beamer because of the law of the state that prohibits abortion, says the mother of the woman and tells the local news that the family has no say on this matter.
April Newkirk said her 30-year-old daughter Adriana Smith experienced intensive headaches in early February. At that time, Smith was nine weeks pregnant with her second child, reported the NBC partner WXIA TV from Atlanta.
Smith searched for treatment in the Northside Hospital But Newkirk was released and received medication, Newkirk told the station. Newkirk said the hospital did not carry out any tests or scans.
Northside did not immediately answer a request for comments on Thursday.
One day after looking for a treatment, Smith's friend woke up to snap for air and make a believing noises, Newkirk told Wxia.
Adriana Smith when she was pregnant with her first child.About Wxia
Smith was brought to Emory Decatur and then transferred to the Emory University Hospital, where a CT scan showed several blood clots in her brain, the news station reported.
Newkirk said the news channel that her daughter was declared brain dead and “breathe through machines for more than 90 days”.
“It's torture for me,” she said. “I see my daughter breathing, but she's not there.”
Newkirk rejected an interview when he was contacted by NBC News on Thursday morning.
According to WXIA, it is planned to keep Smith alive until the baby, who can most likely survive alone at 32 weeks, can surely survive.
Republican governor Brian Kemp signed the state's almost total abortion ban, which is known as a Life Act in 2019, but it was not until 2022 after it came into force before a legal contestation and the Supreme Court of the USA Roe v. Wade moved.
According to the law, abortions are illegal after six weeks of pregnancy. Exceptions include some situations to protect the life and health of women when fetal anomalies are recognized, and in cases of rape and incest that were documented with the police.
April Newkirk.Wxia
Newkirk told the station that her daughter is currently 21 weeks pregnant.
“It should have been left to the family,” said Newkirk and told the ward that the family's doctors have informed that they are legally not allowed to consider any other options.
“I don't say that we decided to end their pregnancy, but I say we should have a choice,” she said.
A spokesman for Emory Healthcare said that she used “consensus from clinical experts, medical literature and legal instructions to support our providers, since they submit individual treatment recommendations into harmony with the abortion laws and all other applicable laws in Georgia.”
“Our top priorities are still the security and well -being of the patients we serve,” said the spokesman.
Monica Simpson, managing director of the Sistersong organization, said the first problem with Smith's case was that she had not received adequate care when she was looking for help for her headache.
The situation in which the family is located now throws another problem, the gray area with the abortion ban of the state, said Simpson on Thursday in a call.
The ban creates “this kind of uncertainty for providers of medical care, it creates this kind of uncertainty for people who compete,” said Simpson.
“It's not black and white,” she added. “Unfortunately, these gray areas that our chosen civil servants, our state, have not taken into account our governor if we move this ban to the game. What we saw … is that there is gray areas and there is a risk there.”
Newkirk said the family also had to deal with financial responsibility to keep Smith in life.
