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An Awesome Miracle!
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Posted by: FriendOfGod
I wanted to share with you all this awesome miracle about a woman with cancer who became brain dead, giving birth. This takes place in the area where I live. I have been keeping track of this story, praying that God would see to it that the baby would make it. I can't praise the Lord enough for what he has done in the lives of this family! 
Enjoy! God Bless You All!
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Brain-Dead Va. Woman Gives Birth
Baby Appears Healthy After 3-Month Ordeal
By Stephanie McCrummen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 3, 2005; Page A01
A cancer-stricken woman who was declared brain-dead three months ago gave birth yesterday to a baby girl at an Arlington hospital.
Susan Torres of Arlington was about 15 weeks pregnant when she was felled by a brain tumor in May, but she was hooked up to a ventilator and other machines in the slim hope that her baby might survive.
Susan Torres's cancer spread from her brain to her other vital organs. (AP)
And Susan Torres's belly kept growing.
Susan Torres's cancer spread from her brain to her other vital organs. (AP)
She had hoped for a girl, and at 8:18 a.m. yesterday Susan Anne Catherine Torres was delivered by Caesarean section at Virginia Hospital Center. The newborn weighed 1 pound, 13 ounces and was 13.5 inches long. There were no complications during delivery, and the baby appears healthy, said her uncle, Justin Torres. The hospital confirmed the birth and said the baby is being monitored in the neonatal intensive care unit.
Meanwhile, Susan Torres's husband, Jason, who has slept by his wife's side for three months, who has decorated her room with pictures, held her hand and talked to her, faced the moment he knew would come.
Sometime -- perhaps today or tomorrow, if it hasn't happened already -- his wife's body, full of cancer, will be unhooked from the web of machinery that has kept it going for the past 13 weeks and allowed to die, an end that Jason Torres, other relatives and a team of doctors all agreed was inevitable.
Even as the baby continued to grow during the past several months, Susan Torres's cancer -- melanoma -- grew as well, spreading to her lymph nodes, lungs, liver and other vital organs, relatives said.
As recently as last week, there was no evidence that the cancer had reached the placenta, but there were a multitude of other complications that could have forced the delivery, including infection. It was a bona fide race between life and death, one that family members decided to broadcast around the world in the hope of raising money to help with mounting medical bills.
Doctors and family members did not specify why the decision was made to deliver, but that her 26-year-old body had held out this long was beyond what anyone had hoped for in the beginning.
Susan Torres found out she was pregnant in February, and she and Jason, who have a 2-year-old son, Peter, were overjoyed.
Although she had a malformed freckle removed from her arm when she was a teenager, doctors had given her a clean bill of health.
In April, she began complaining of headaches and nausea, symptoms that doctors chalked up to her pregnancy. Then, on May 7, propped up in bed eating dinner, Susan Torres lost consciousness.
At the hospital, doctors told Jason Torres that his wife was brain-dead with no hope of recovery but that there was a slim chance they could keep her body going with machines for the sake of the fetus, which was about 15 weeks old at the time.
Jason Torres was certain that his wife, who had refused tests to detect birth defects, would have wanted to try. Susan Torres's parents agreed. And so, they began their vigil.
Jason Torres quit his job and began sleeping at his wife's side as a team of doctors monitored her temperature, blood pressure and the delicate chemistry of her body. Jason talked to her, and he talked to the baby, Justin Torres said. Susan's parents visited her, hugged her and kissed her. Her mother gave her French tip manicures.
Sonograms -- at first once a week or so and finally once a day -- showed the baby was healthy, even feisty, and where she was developmentally.
Last month, the crucial 24th week -- the earliest doctors believe a fetus can survive outside the womb -- came and went. A room next to Susan's was cleared out and readied for an emergency delivery. Doctors became increasingly concerned about infection and began limiting physical contact and family visits.
Jason Torres, whose insurance will cover only part of the medical costs, decided to go public with the story to avert bankruptcy -- which it appears he has done, his brother said.
He has talked to newspapers in Australia and Canada and sat under the hot lights of "Larry King Live." The bill has already exceeded $1 million. More than $400,000 has been raised, from bake sales and basketball tournaments and happy hour benefits.
As the story of Susan Torres spread, hopeful checks came from Ireland and England, from an Alabama convent, from a soldier in Baghdad. Someone from Japan sent a box of cash, betting for a medical miracle, which, in a way, yesterday was.
There have been only 12 documented cases like it since the 1970s. Now there are 13.
Staff writer Leef Smith contributed to this report.
Posted by: christythompson
I saw this on the news too.
It is a heart wrenching report
Jesus
heal this baby to breathe
let her organs grow
let all infection and disease be gone from any attacks on this little girl.
Let her be a child that is bright and intelligent
Give her a quick step and eyes that smile
let her be the beloved comfort to Dad and grandparents
a baby, a child, a teenager, a young lady, a woman..
let her have a full life in Jesus name!!!
Posted by: FriendOfGod
Here is a follow up article in the miraclous birth of Susan Torres' baby. They had to take her off of life support yesterday. But the baby is doing good so far! Please keep praying that this little child is kept shielded by God's mightiest armies of angels and grows up to be healthy and strong with no trace of cancer. God Bless You All!
Your sister in Christ
Janet
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Brain-Dead Mother Is Taken Off Life Support
Healthy Premature Baby Is Likely to Avoid Cancer
By Stephanie McCrummen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, August 4, 2005; Page A01
After her husband and parents said their last goodbyes and after a priest offered a prayer -- words about weeping in a valley of tears -- Susan Torres, her improbable mission accomplished, was unhooked yesterday morning from the machines that sustained not only her body but that of her baby for the past three months.
The 26-year-old Arlington woman, who was felled by cancer and declared brain-dead in May, but who gave birth by Caesarean section Tuesday to the girl she had hoped for, died shortly thereafter. It was the end her family knew was inevitable, but it was no less difficult to fathom.
Torres gave birth to a baby girl Tuesday. The 26-year-old NIH researcher was left brain-dead after suffering a stroke in May. (AP)
"We are thrilled with the baby, but this is a very difficult day," Justin Torres, Susan Torres's brother-in-law, said at a news conference at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington. He added that years from now, he would certainly tell his niece about the woman who brought her into the world.
"I'm going to tell her her mother was one of the toughest women I've ever met, that she was absolutely determined in what she did. . . . And that, 'You cannot believe how many people fought for you,' " he said.
Jason Torres, who slept by his wife's side for three months, whose cell phone still carries her voice and who made the final decision to unhook the machines, stayed away from the cameras and crowds of reporters who had come to the hospital to find out, among other things, how his new daughter, Susan Anne Catherine Torres, was doing.
The answer, a team of doctors said, was pretty well.
At a gestational age of 27 weeks, at 1 pound 13 ounces, the baby came out crying, kicking and "very vigorous," said Donna Tilden-Archer, medical director of neonatology at the hospital. The infant is breathing on her own, receiving supplemental oxygen and pressure to keep her tiny airspace open. Her heart appears normal and is beating regularly.
An initial examination of the placenta showed no signs of the melanoma that had spread throughout Susan Torres's body, and further microscopic testing is being conducted, said Christopher McManus, the attending physician. There is no way to say for certain whether the baby will develop melanoma. In similar cases in which the placenta is afflicted with melanoma, babies develop the cancer less than 25 percent of the time.
The baby's premature birth presents additional complications, such as immature digestive, respiratory and immune systems, but again, Tilden-Archer said, the child who had about everything going against her now has statistics on her side: Babies born at 27 weeks survive about 90 percent of the time. "We are ecstatic she is here," Tilden-Archer said, "and that she seems to be healthy."
The decision to deliver the baby came somewhat suddenly, nearly three months after Susan Torres lost consciousness, was declared brain-dead and was left on a ventilator, IVs and other machines in the long-shot hope her baby might grow faster than her cancer.
Torres had had melanoma as a teenager but had long been given a clean bill of health; doctors said the melanoma apparently lay dormant for those years.
By the time she reached the hospital, doctors said, the melanoma had metastasized in her brain, and she was declared brain-dead within days. The cancer eventually spread throughout her brain, her lymph nodes, her lungs, her adrenal glands and her liver, and it had begun to spread even more quickly in recent days. Then her blood pressure dropped, her heart began beating irregularly and her white blood cell count spiked, raising concerns about infection.
After three months, it seemed that all the sophisticated machinery medicine had to offer could not overcome the momentum of her body. Ultimately, said Rodney McLaren, medical director for maternal-fetal medicine at the hospital, the risks of keeping the baby in her mother's womb outweighed the risks of delivering her prematurely.
And so, on Monday night, the decision was made.
About 7 a.m. Tuesday, Susan Torres, who had been a microbiologist with the National Institutes of Health, was wheeled into an operating room. Jason Torres and her parents were outside, and when the baby came, they were able to see her through a glass window, doctors said. She is 13.5 inches long.
Justin Torres said it was a wonderful moment and that his brother, who had not slept in days, was overjoyed. Everyone "took a real deep breath," he said, adding that Jason marveled at the size of his little girl's fingers and feet.
At the same time, Justin Torres said, "we knew what was coming next."
Only 12 similar cases have been reported in the medical literature since the 1970s.
Jason Torres met his wife in college and has said that he always admired her competitive spirit and strong will. The couple had a son, Peter, now 2, and were happy to get the news that another baby was on the way. When Jason Torres made the decision to try to save the baby in May, he was certain it was what his wife, who refused testing for birth defects, would have wanted.
In the months that followed, he slept by her side, held her hand and talked to her and their baby. He accepted the doctor's diagnosis that his wife had no hope of recovery, but talking made things a bit easier, Justin Torres has said.
Other things did, as well. Yesterday, Justin Torres said that the family, which is Catholic, had "literally been lifted up in prayer."
He said that he and his brother would sometimes sit in the intensive care unit and read letters sent from around the world and down the street. Besides money to help with staggering medical bills, people have sent such items as baby blankets. A woman sent them a series of photos of her baby, who was born at 26 weeks, showing how she grew up healthy and strong.
Yesterday morning, Torres said, his brother made the decision to turn off the ventilator and machines. The Rev. Paul Scalia offered Susan Torres the last rites of the Catholic church and said a prayer, "Hail, Holy Queen."
"Her passing is a testament to the truth that human life is a gift from God," Justin Torres said, "and that children are always to be fought for, even if life requires -- as it did of Susan -- the last full measure of devotion."
Posted by: Jesu
Wow!!! What an amazing story. The power of God and all the prayers and support that came in. What a M-I-R-A-C-L-E!!!
Our Heavenly Father, thank you for keeping this beautiful mother, Susan Torres alive to have her precious child, Susan Anne Catherine Torres. Please hold her precious little hand and shine your heavenly love upon her life. Please continue to bless and heal the whole family completely to wholeness in Jesus' Name I ask this.