TY  - JOUR
T1  - MAternal brain death during pregnancy
AU  - Bremer HL
Y1  - 1989/03/24
N1  - 10.1001/jama.1989.03420120060017
JO  - JAMA
SP  - 1729
EP  - 1729
VL  - 261
IS  - 12
N2  - 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
SN  - 0098-7484
M3  - doi: 10.1001/jama.1989.03420120060017
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.1989.03420120060017
ER  -