A brain-dead Texas woman who was 22 weeks pregnant was kept on life support for two months after being declared legally dead under state law.

(Flickr, Keith Ramsey)

Marlise Nicole Muñoz, 33, was finally removed from life-support at John Peter Smith Hospital Sunday, following a judge’s ruling that the hospital was mis-applying a state law which prohibits pregnant patients from being disconnected to “life-sustaining treatment”.

Muñoz fell unconscious in her home on November 26 while 14 weeks pregnant with her second child, and was declared brain-dead two days later. Her husband, Erick Muñoz, fought the Fort Worth hospital after they refused to disconnect his wife from a ventilator that kept her body alive. Muñoz and family tried following the victim’s request and asked doctors to unplug the mother-to-be from life-support.

“I promised her, I told her ‘I will honor your wishes.’ And for the state of Texas to not let us do that, was hard. You know, you want to keep your word to your loved one,” said Muñoz in an emotional interview with CNN yesterday.

According to the L.A. Times, the hospital refused to disconnect Muñoz shortly after learning that an unfamiliar Texas law existed which prevented them from disconnecting a pregnant patient from life-support. What they didn’t know was that the law did not apply to a patient that is declared legally dead, and, in Texas, a brain-dead victim is considered dead under state law. That is where the hospital went wrong.

Still, as a result of such a complicated case, a clear debate has been sparked. How does a hospital, or any conscientiousness person react in such a situation where life and death are literally hand-in-hand? Did the hospital do right by keeping the mother’s body alive to possibly protect a life inside? Or did the hospital not bother to investigate the law any further and ignorantly make a family suffer through a heart-wrenching sight that no one should have to endure?

Muñoz’s attorney’s explained during the week of the trial that the baby, named Nicole after her mother, was declared an abnormal fetus. They found that the infant was suffering from hydrocephalus, which means the brain was filled with cerebrospinal fluid that could have eventually led to death. In addition, heart problems were also found but could not be further investigated due to the state of being within a lifeless body. The baby was eventually declared an unviable fetus.

There was not much to save here. If the mother is not able to provide any kind of life-saving assistance to her baby that has close to no chance of survival, what purpose is there in forcing her body's heart to beat and corpse to deteriorate? If the baby can be saved, keep the mother alive until the baby is able to be born, but if the baby has no chance, then let both souls go in peace and save the family grief.

“When I bend down to kiss her forehead, her usual scent is gone, replaced instead with what I can only describe as the smell of death,” Muñoz wrote in a court statement.

The hospital claimed it was simply trying to follow the law. What they should have done is taken the time to investigate what the state of the child was and was going to be for the months following, what that meant under the state law, and saved Mr. Muñoz the unnecessary grief he endured for two whole months.

Marlise Muñoz should have been taken off life support two months ago, when her husband asked them to do so. The baby was not going to survive under the circumstances, her mother had made it clear she did not want to live. Muñoz and his wife were both paramedics. They witnessed the death on a daily basis. This exposure led them to both exchange their wishes on the matter of allowing their lives to be extended by artificial means-- his wife made it clear to her family she did not.

What helped Muñoz in his case was that his wife's mother and other loved ones wanted the same thing he did. They wanted to honor the victim's wishes. Her being pregnant made no difference to them because they knew baby Nicole didn't stand a chance. Although it helped to have the family on the same page, this won't always be the case. What will happen if another trial arises and it is not clear what the victim would have wanted? Who's wishes should be honored then?

To prevent more confusion in a situation that is difficult enough to endure, it is important, and should become required, for families to claim in writing what their wishes will be after the fetus is officially declared unviable. Hospitals have the right to save a child with all possible means, it should not be seen as the law overstepping its boundaries. However, there needs to be clear evidence that the fetus has a chance of survival by keeping the mother's body alive.   

As a result of this case, the Fort Worth hospital should at least dismiss the medical bills for the Muñoz family after making them suffer by the corpse’s bedside for 4 weeks. Muñoz told CNN’s Anderson Cooper, so far, all bills are being issued normally. Talk about a smack in the face. After being proven right, and forced to wait months to burry your dead spouse, you have to make sure to handle all the expenses that kept her there.

Reach Staff Reporter Minerva Ruelas here.