The longest period in the medical history to keep a brain-dead person alive is this mother who gave birth to twins. Doctors kept her alive for 123 days on life support. Frankielen da Silva Zampoli Padilha, 21, died during pregnancy in October last year after suffering a stroke.
The decision to try and save the nine-week-old little embryos after their hearts continued to beat inside the womb was a big one. In February 2017, the twins – one boy and a girl – were born at seven months. Dad Muriel Padilha, 24 said his twins – Asaph and Anna Vitoria – birth is a miracle. They were given utmost care when they were in the womb. Doctors took extreme care in saving the twins lives. The continuous support to stabilize the young mom’s body from shutting down which involved many complications was outstanding. She donated her kidneys and heart to save two lives after the ventilator was switched off in February.
Dad Muriel Padilha, 24 said his twins – Asaph and Anna Vitoria – birth is a miracle. They were given utmost care when they were in the womb. Doctors took extreme care in saving the twins lives. The continuous support to stabilize the young mom’s body from shutting down which involved many complications was outstanding. She donated her kidneys and heart to save two lives after the ventilator was switched off in February.
Muriel also has a two-year-old daughter, Isa Beatriz, with his wife. He said, “I was on my way to work last October when Frankielen called begging me to come back home urgently. She said her head was killing her. I told her to take a tablet. But she said there was a sharp pain in the back of her neck and it was so strong she felt she was going to collapse.”
Muriel is an agriculture farmer. He had rushed home to find his wife shaking, crying, dizzy, and vomiting from the pain.
He said, “As I drove her to the hospital, she said ‘I want you to be prepared to accept this because I will be staying there, I won’t be coming home’.Then she passed out and those were the last words she spoke to me and the last time I saw her alive.”
She had a cerebral hemorrhage and after three days of many tests and scans, doctors said she is brain-dead and also warned there was no hope for the twins inside.
Muriel said, “They told me they would give the babies three more days of life because they had given my wife multiple CT scans, sedated her with powerful drugs and pumped her full of antibiotics and this meant everything had ended up in our babies.
“They said as soon as their little hearts stopped beating, they would turn off the gadgets and I would be able to bury my wife.”
Dr. Dalton Rivabem, head of Neurological ICU revealed, “We did an ultrasound on the embryos thinking they would be failing in the womb but to our surprise, they were clinging to life.
“Frankielen’s organs were all intact and working as if she was still with us. We took the decision to keep her alive to save her unborn children. And every day we watched them grow normally.”
He said, “It was an extremely challenging case which required intensive multidisciplinary work. ‘There were many complications with the continuous support of medications to maintain pressure, maintain oxygenation, maintain continuous nutrition and hormonal balance. We used antibiotics during the entire hospitalization period.”
Dr. Rivabem said, “One of our main concerns was to keep the organ functions continual for the babies to grow and develop.”
The distraught dad Muriel said, “Frankielen was a generous and loving person. I believe God chose her for this purpose so a miracle could happen.”
