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Pray for a healthy, full-term baby
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Posted by: blessedbygod
Brain-dead woman to deliver baby
11:49 AM PDT on Friday, July 22, 2005
Associated Press
RICHMOND, Va. – A brain-dead pregnant woman being kept on life support has passed a milestone in her fetus's development, giving her family renewed hope her child will survive.
Susan Torres' fetus recently passed the 24th week of development – the earliest point at which doctors believed the baby would have a reasonable chance to survive outside the womb, her brother-in-law said.
"The situation is pretty stable," said Justin Torres, who is serving as the family's spokesman. "Susan, we have said from the beginning, is the toughest person in that ICU."
Ms. Torres, a 26-year-old researcher at the National Institutes of Health, lost consciousness from a stroke May 7 after aggressive melanoma spread to her brain. Jason Torres said doctors told him his wife's brain functions had stopped.
The family is "as certain within the limits of sonogram technology" that the baby is a girl, Justin Torres said.
Resources
The Susan Torres Fund
A Web site was set up to help raise money for the family's mounting medical bills, and they have now received about $400,000 in donations. Jason Torres quit his job as a printing salesman to be by his wife's side, and the family must pay tens of thousands of dollars each week that insurance does not cover.
Donations have poured in from around the world: Germany, Britain, Japan – even a check with no note from a soldier in Iraq. On Monday, the family received a hand-knit baby blanket from a woman in Pennsylvania who was on a tight income but wanted to do something to help.
Jason Torres spends every night sleeping in a reclining chair next to his wife's bed at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, which has declined to comment on the case. The couple's 2-year-old son, Peter, is staying with grandparents.
If possible, the doctors hope to hold off on delivering the child until 32 weeks' gestation, Justin Torres said. A full-term pregnancy is about 40 weeks.
The melanoma has spread to Ms. Torres' lymph nodes and taken over her vital organs, but they continue to function. There is a chance the cancer could spread to the placenta, but so far it has been spared, Justin Torres said.
Since 1979, there have been at least a dozen similar cases published in English medical literature, said Dr. Winston Campbell, director of maternal-fetal medicine at the University of Connecticut Health Center, which conducted research on the topic.
Posted by: Christian Commando
Lord- we pray that you would Grace this family with a live baby growing to full term in her mother and help it to be born perfectly healthy. Bring peace and rest to these troubled and stressed out hearts and minds of family members from the worry and fear they have suffered, as well as from the trauma the mother has suffered from the stroke to this situation. Lord, give them comfort and joy for this milestone event and bring them this blessing of new life. In Jesus Name- Amen!!
Posted by: MamaCat
I pray not only for a healthy full term baby, but I pray for the woman to be totally healed of this cancer now in Jesus name! I command the cancer in her body to disolve and be gone, all of it, today in Jesus name! I loose the life of God, the healing power, the glory and an infusion of the blood of Christ into her today to make her clean and healthy, her and the baby, body, soul and spirit! Do a mighty miracle in this woman's life, Father God! Let the whole world see and know You and the power of Your resurrection!! Amen!
Posted by: Lynn7
Father be with this child. Hold this beautiful baby while in the womb. Keep the baby healthy. In the name of Jesus allow this baby to enter into the word healthy. Thank you Lord. AMEN