Baby Boy Delivered to Woman in Coma, Lives Just 32 Hours

A baby delivered 15 weeks prematurely to a brain-dead woman died Saturday after 32 hours of life. The mother and child had been at the center of a court battle between the woman’s husband and the man who said he was the father of the child.

The unnamed boy eventually succumbed to the same drug overdose that had left his mother comatose, said Dr. Spencer Brudno, a neonatologist. The mother, Donna Piazzi, 25, had been in a coma since she overdosed in June.

The 1-pound, 1-ounce baby, delivered by Caesarean section at University Hospital late Thursday, died of multiple organ failure. Piazzi, who had been kept on life-support systems by court order, died Thursday night when the systems were disconnected, shortly after the surgical delivery.

Robert Piazzi had asked that his wife, who was found unconscious in a shopping mall restroom on June 27, be taken off life-support equipment after doctors determined that she could not regain consciousness. He said that she had suffered enough.

David Hadden, who claimed to be the father of the baby, and University Hospital won a court order that the woman be kept alive until the baby was born. The husband did not dispute Hadden’s paternity claim.