Manama: A pregnant Filipina who was declared clinically dead just before delivery at a hospital in Kuwait came back to life moments after her baby boy was born.
“This is a scientific miracle at all levels,” doctors at Farwaniya Hospital in the capital Kuwait City said.
“A 36-year-old Filipina who was nine months pregnant was hospitalised at 3.30am on Friday in a critical condition with extremely high blood pressure,” Dr Humoud Al Zobi, the hospital manager, said. “The woman suffered a cardiac arrest while being examined in the casualty department after she coughed and spat blood. Her heart then stopped beating and she stopped breathing,” he said, quoted by Kuwait News Agency (Kuna).
She was declared clinically dead and was immediately rushed to the operation theatre to save the baby. According to local reports, the medics had around five minutes to deliver the child.
Al Zobi added that doctors performed a successful perimortem Caesarean section on the clinically dead woman with no pulse or respiratory activity, delivered a healthy baby and revived the mother.
“A healthy 3.1-kg boy was born simultaneously with his mother’s resuscitation,” Dr Mohammad Hassan, who supervised the operation, said. “This is a scientific miracle at all levels. As soon as the woman was checked and declared clinically dead, the maternity division of the hospital was put on alert for a Caesarean. The woman and her baby are now in stable condition,” he said.
The Caesarean operation had been performed without anaesthesia as the mother was considered dead.
Medics at the hospital said that they were grateful for the success of the delivery of the baby and the resuscitation of the mother.
A report in local daily Al Watan said that resuscitation in two similar cases at Al Farwaniya Hospital, 20 years and 13 years ago, had failed and the mothers died.
