Coma Patient Gives Birth to Healthy Baby

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A healthy baby boy was born to a 40-year-old woman who spent the last 22 weeks of her pregnancy in a coma, say doctors at a clinic in Germany. They described the world-first event as "extraordinary."

Clinic officials said since the 1970s, about 25 cases of brain death or coma in pregnant women have been made public, and they tend to end in miscarriage or deformed babies, Agence France-Presse reported.

"Given the mother's age -- and the completely normal state of the child -- this case is extraordinary in the scientific world and very pleasing," said Matthias Beckmann, of the University Clinic in Erlangen, southern Germany.

The child is now 18 months old. The mother suffered major heart and brain damage after a heart attack. The doctors said there is "almost no hope" for her, AFP reported.