Woman with dead brain gives birth to baby

The woman was hospitalized in March after suffering the rupture of a cerebral aneurysm, and she was soon declared brain dead, the hospital said. She spent 78 days in a brain-dead state. She was kept alive artificially for more than two months and gave birth to a premature baby girl. A few hours after the Saturday birth, the machinery artificially keeping her alive was shut off, according to the ABC News.

The baby girl, born two months early, was breathing on her own Sunday, doctors said.

The baby, named Cristina after her mother, was born by emergency Caesarian section and weighed just over 1.5 pounds, the doctors told reporters.

Doctors decided to deliver the baby after the woman's blood pressure plunged and the fetus experienced heart rhythm problems, the hospital said.

The mother's kidneys and corneas were donated for transplant, the hospital said. Her liver was donated to another patient at Niguarda hospital, the AP reports.