Lourenço, the 'miracle baby' born in Lisbon to his brain-dead mother, Sandra Pedro, has left the neonatal unit at the Alfredo da Costa Maternity Hospital in Lisbon and gone home with his father.
The baby has been under the care of hospital staff for a month while a custody battle threatened to spoil the heart-warming story of Lourenço whose mother has suffered a brain haemorrhage when six months pregnant.
Miguel Ângelo Faria, the bay’s father, has been evaluated by social workers and psychologists and was allowed to take his son home on Monday July 4th.
Faria, 38, at first was unwilling to commit to raising his child due primarily to concerns over his work-related paternity rights but later said that he intended to keep custody of the child.
Lourenço’s maternal grandparents wanted custody of their grandson and wanted to go to court to assert what they saw as their rights.
Sandra Pedro was allowed to die shortly after giving birth. She had been diagnosed with kidney cancer and later suffered a catastrophic drop in blood pressure leading to the haemorrhage which left her brain-dead.
With the father taking full responsibility for his son, the medical ethics committee and lawyers can breathe a joint sigh of relief and the public can be cheered by a story with a happy ending.
