Adriana Smith’s baby is “doing better,” her mother said, in follow-up to the report on the Georgia woman on life support.
ATLANTA — The mother of Adriana Smith, a pregnant Georgia woman who loved ones say was declared brain dead in February, said her daughter’s baby is showing some signs of improvement — even as questions around medical decisions, consent and state law continue to grow.
Smith, 30, was eight weeks pregnant when her mother, April Newkirk, said she went to Northside Hospital in early February for what she described as a severe headache. Within hours, she was unresponsive. Her family later learned she had suffered blood clots in her brain and was declared brain dead.
Now 22 weeks pregnant, Smith remains on life support at Emory University Hospital Midtown, where she was transferred last week.
Doctors plan to keep her on machines until early August when they hope to deliver her baby via C-section.
On Monday, Newkirk shared that her unborn grandson — whom the family has named Chance — is continuing to grow.
“The baby is actually doing better than the last time I met with the doctors,” she said.
Newkirk explained Smith is receiving steroids and nutrition through a PICC line. She added that baby Chance’s heartbeat is strong and that he’s measuring slightly above average in weight for his gestational age.
“He has his toes, arms, limbs — everything is forming,” she said. “We’re just hoping he makes it.”
But the family’s hope is clouded by frustration.
Newkirk said Georgia’s heartbeat law — which prohibits most abortions once cardiac activity is detected, usually around six weeks — prevented them from making any decision about continuing the pregnancy.
“We didn’t have a choice or a say about it,” she said. “We want the baby. That’s a part of my daughter. But the decision should have been left to us — not the state.”
However, on Friday, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr’s communications office issued a statement about the matter in question
“There is nothing in the LIFE Act that requires medical professionals to keep a woman on life support after brain death. Removing life support is not an action with the purpose to terminate a pregnancy,” wrote Carr’s spokeswoman Kara Murray.
She added “our prayers go out” to the woman’s family.
Smith leaves behind one child already, and Newkirk said it has been emotionally devastating to see her daughter kept alive by machines.
“Every time we go to see her, we grieve. And we hurt,” she said. “The grieving process can’t even begin because she’s just lying there.”
Newkirk believes her daughter’s condition could have been prevented. She told 11Alive Smith was given high-potency Tylenol during her visit to Northside but never received a CT scan that might have detected the clots earlier.
“A simple CT scan could have saved her life,” she said. “She was a 30-year-old mother chasing her dreams. It just doesn’t make sense.”
The family said they are now focused on reaching August 11 — the projected date in which Newkirk said doctors feel baby Chance can be safely delivered. After that, Newkirk said, they will have to face another painful decision about whether to remove life support.
“That’s what I have a hard time with,” she said. “But right now, the journey is for baby Chance to survive — and whatever condition God allows him to come here in, we’re going to love him just the same.”
Smith’s story has now gained international attention, sparking debate around medical ethics, reproductive rights, and Georgia’s abortion laws.
The family has launched an online fundraiser to help cover medical and travel costs as they remain close to Emory in the coming months.
