Devastating Loss

Story in USA Today.

Susan Anne Catherine Torres died after emergency surgery for a ruptured intestine, her uncle, Justin Torres, said in an e-mail. The baby was born three months prematurely, on Aug. 2, to Susan Torres, who was kept alive on a ventilator for nearly three months so she could deliver the baby.

The baby's death brings a tragic end to a story that had touched a responsive chord around the nation and the world. Well-wishers from as far as Pakistan, Chile and
Iraq sent the family books, cards, pictures and prayers. As of last month, about $600,000, ranging from a $15,000 anonymous contribution to the nickels, dimes and quarters from a child's piggy bank, had been collected to help pay bills.

Doctors told the family theirs was the first case they found of a child born to a brain-dead woman with melanoma.

The baby had been gaining weight, the family said on its Web site last month. But over the weekend, an infection developed and the baby's condition deteriorated rapidly. She died at Children's National Medical Center in Washington.

"After the efforts of this summer to bring her into the world, this is obviously a devastating loss," Justin Torres said in his e-mail. "We wish to thank all the people who sustained us in prayer over the past 17 weeks. It was our fondest wish that we could have been able to share Susan's homecoming with the world."