RT Journal
A1 Bremer HL
T1 MAternal brain death during pregnancy
JF JAMA
JO JAMA
YR 1989
FD March 24
VO 261
IS 12
SP 1729
OP 1729
DO 10.1001/jama.1989.03420120060017
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.1989.03420120060017
AB To the Editor. — 
    The article by Field et al1 is a technical feat demonstrating medicine's abilities to provide prolonged life support in a brain dead individual. A 27-year-old woman was kept alive for 9 weeks to allow fetal maturation of a 22-week pregnancy after having suffered brain death. She presented with a 5-day history of headaches, vomiting, and disorientation. Vital signs were normal. A lumbar puncture was performed; 4 hours later she had a generalized seizure, respiratory arrest, and was then brain dead.Her $217 784 hospital bill could have been substantially less if a computed tomographic (CT) scan (at a cost of $300 to $500) had been obtained prior to the lumbar puncture. It does not matter whether the scan would have been done with or without contrast (or both), as the obstructive hydrocephalus would have been recognized easily and subsequent brain herniation prevented.The only possible