When 31-year-old nurse and mom-of-one Adriana Smith was declared brain-dead while pregnant, her family lost her twice: once to a sudden medical emergency, and again to a law that kept her body alive to carry a child she’d never meet.
Who Was Adriana Smith?
Adriana Smith, 31, from Atlanta, Georgia, was a nurse, a daughter, and mom to seven-year-old Chase. In early 2024, she was also newly pregnant and quietly excited about welcoming a second baby into the family.
Everything changed in February, when Adriana suffered a sudden medical emergency. Despite doctors’ efforts, her condition deteriorated, and in May she was tragically declared brain-dead.
At that moment, her family thought they would be allowed to say goodbye. Instead, they were pulled into a legal and ethical nightmare they had never imagined.
The ‘Heartbeat Law’ That Kept Her Body Alive
When Adriana was declared brain-dead, she was nine weeks pregnant. Under Georgia’s strict “heartbeat law” and fetal personhood rules, the fetus was recognized as a legal person whose life the state was obligated to protect.
In practice, that meant one thing: Adriana’s body had to be kept on life support, not for her own sake, but to give the fetus a chance to survive.
Her family later wrote on GoFundMe:
“We had no say so regarding her lifeless body and unborn child.”
They couldn’t choose to let her go peacefully, even though doctors had confirmed there was no chance of recovery. The machines stayed on.
Baby Chance’s Birth in the NICU
In June, about a month after Adriana was declared brain-dead, doctors performed a C-section. Her baby boy, Chance, was delivered extremely premature, weighing just 1 lb 13 oz.
He was immediately transferred to a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), fighting for his life with underdeveloped lungs and all the complications that come with such an early birth.
That same month, Adriana was removed from life support. Her family finally held a funeral— grieving not only the daughter and mother they’d lost, but the way her final months were controlled by a legal system rather than her loved ones.
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