The woman was 17 weeks pregnant, and doctors at Wroclaw's University Hospital decided to try and save the life of the unborn child by artificially maintaining his mother's vital bodily functions.
The baby boy weighed around one kilogram when he was born, and he spent the next three weeks in intensive care in the hospital where he gained around three kilograms in weight, and became able to breathe independently.
He has now been taken home by his father, and will be an outpatient at the hospital's pediatrics department until he is three years old.
Professor Barbara Królak-Olejnik, head of University Hospital's neonatal unit, told Sputnik Poland that doctors took the decision to prolong the mother's life after consulting her family.
Cud we Wrocławiu. Kobieta, która nie żyła od 55 dni, urodziła dziecko https://t.co/jcG4YRjegD pic.twitter.com/8LKwq0oYex
— Polska The Times (@polskathetimes) 19 апреля 2016 г.
'Miracle in Wroclow. A woman who had been dead for 55 days gave birth to a child,' reported Polska Times.
"At the beginning, in constant consultation with anesthetists, obstetricians and neonatologists, we planned to prolong the pregnancy to 30 weeks. At that stage of pregnancy the fetus is developed enough and does not need intensive therapy after birth," Królak-Olejnik said.
"Unfortunately in the 26th week of pregnancy the condition of the fetus was so precarious that there was a danger of miscarriage. We had to make an urgent decision – can we fight for his life?"
"The fetus was very small and premature, but we had to try and meet this challenge, otherwise the child would have died in his mother's womb," she explained.
"I would prefer that this kind of situation doesn't happen again, for this is a great joy amid great sorrow. But I am sure that all the staff at the hospital would be ready to meet such a challenge," the doctor said.
