Family members said Adriana Smith will be taken off life support this week.
ATLANTA — The family of Adriana Smith, a metro Atlanta nurse who was declared brain dead in February while pregnant, said her baby boy has arrived.
According to her mother, April Newkirk, the infant, named Chance, was born prematurely Friday, June 13, around 4:41 a.m. by emergency Cesarean section.
Newkirk said Chance weighs about 1 pound 13 ounces and is in NICU.
“He’s expected to be OK,” Newkirk said. “He’s just fighting. We just want prayers for him. Just keep praying for him. He’s here now.”
She’s now preparing to say goodbye to her daughter. Newkirk said the hospital will take Smith off of life support Tuesday.
“It’s kind of hard, you know,” she said tearfully. “It’s hard to process.”
She wishes she had more time.
“I’m her mother,” she said. “I shouldn’t be burying my daughter. My daughter should be burying me.”
She’s now trying to hold it together for her grandchildren. Loved ones marked Smith’s 31st birthday over the weekend.
“If I could say one more thing to her, I guess I would tell her that I love her and that she was a great daughter.”
Being diagnosed brain dead while pregnant
Smith has been on life support for nearly four months after suffering a medical emergency linked to blood clots in her brain. Her case drew national attention as it raised difficult questions about Georgia’s abortion law, which bans most abortions after cardiac activity is detected, around six weeks into pregnancy.
Smith was declared brain dead on February 19, when she was eight weeks pregnant. Newkirk said doctors told the family they were required to keep Smith on life support under the state’s abortion law, House Bill 481, also known as the LIFE Act.
The law does not explicitly address situations involving brain death, but experts and some lawmakers said it has created confusion in medical settings.
“These are not small contradictions. These are life and death contradictions,” said State Sen. Nabilah Islam Parkes during a recent press conference.
In a May statement, the Georgia Attorney General’s Office clarified:
“There is nothing in the LIFE Act that requires medical professionals to keep a woman on life support after brain death,” said spokesperson Kara Murray. “Removing life support is not an action with the purpose to terminate a pregnancy.”
The Associated Press reported that Emory Healthcare, which runs the hospital, has not explained how doctors decided to keep Smith on life support except to say in a statement they considered “Georgia’s abortion laws and all other applicable laws.”
Mom: ‘All women should have a choice about their body’
Smith’s mother, Newkirk, has spoken publicly to 11Alive throughout her daughter’s hospitalization, saying the law stripped their family of the ability to make medical decisions.
“I’m not saying we would have chosen to terminate her pregnancy. But I’m saying we should have had a choice,” Newkirk said in a previous interview with 11Alive.
She maintained that same sentiment Monday after sharing her grandson was born.
“I think all women should have a choice about their body. And I think I want people to know that,” she said.
Smith, a registered nurse, loved her job, Newkirk said.
“The same field that she worked in is the same people that failed her,” Newkirk said.
She previously said her daughter went to Northside Hospital in early February for what she described as a severe headache. She said Smith was sent home. Within hours, according to Newkirk, her daughter was unresponsive. Her family later learned Smith had suffered blood clots in her brain. Newkirk said doctors then declared her daughter brain dead.
Doctors were aiming to deliver the baby at 32 weeks, but Newkirk said Smith had to have an emergency C-section Friday.
Outside of the newborn, Smith also has a 7-year-old son. He believes his mom has been sleeping this entire time. Newkirk said the family will share with him at a later date that he now has a little brother.
‘A ray of light’
Newkirk said her daughter was an amazing mother, who loved her 7-year-old and being involved in his life. She was excited to be expecting again.
“She was a ray of light,” Newkirk said. “She loved to travel, she loved her family. She’s a good mom. And she wanted to advance her education. She loved people.”
Newkirk said she’s received an outpour of support during this ordeal, even from Smith’s former patients.
“Someone wrote me on Facebook, said that she took care of them … (during a) lung transplant and she was amazing. And even after she wasn’t their nurse, she still continued to check on them.”
“I think it means a lot that people reach out to me through email, text messages, Facebook, social media. That says something about her. That says that she was a great person. That, that says a lot. This is a lot. She was special. From the time I had her, she was special, very smart.”
The family continues to raise money for long-term care expenses and support for both children. A an online fundraiser notes mounting hospital bills and ongoing emotional and financial strain.
“Life has its ups and downs, but this hit us really, really hard. And we would just like for everyone to to continue to pray for us and just to give us our privacy at this time,” Newkirk said.
