The family of Adriana Smith is remaining optimistic about the future of her unborn baby. After going to the hospital in February 2025 with a headache, doctors discovered that Smith had blood clots in her brain. She was soon declared brain-dead. At the time, Smith was nine weeks pregnant.
Due to abortion laws in her home state of Georgia, her family is keeping her body alive on life support. As she lays in the hospital, her baby continues to grow. Her mother, April Newkirk, recently shared an update about his development.
“The baby is actually doing better than the last time I met with the doctors,” Newkirk told news outlet 11Alive. According to Newkirk, Adriana Smith is getting steroids and nutrition via a PICC line. The baby, who the family has named Chance, has a strong heartbeat and is measuring slightly above his gestational age, the woman explained.
“He has his toes, arms, limbs — everything is forming,” she explained. “We’re just hoping he makes it.”
Currently, Smith is 22 weeks pregnant. She is on life support at Emory University Hospital Midtown in Atlanta, where she was recently transferred. Doctors are planning to keep her on machines until August. That is when they’re planning to deliver the baby via C-section.
According to Newkirk, due to Georgia’s abortion laws, the family claims they didn’t have a say about whether they wanted to continue the pregnancy after Smith was declared brain-dead.
“We didn’t have a choice or a say about it,” she said. “We want the baby. That’s a part of my daughter. But the decision should have been left to us — not the state.” However, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr claims that’s untrue. “There is nothing in the LIFE Act that requires medical professionals to keep a woman on life support after brain death,” Carr’s spokeswoman Kara Murray said in a statement.
Whether or not it’s true, seeing machines keeping her daughter alive makes grieving hard. “Every time we go to see her, we grieve. And we hurt,” Newkirk said. “The grieving process can’t even begin because she’s just lying there.” Currently, they’re just trying to stay focused on August and Chance’s birth.
“Right now, the journey is for baby Chance to survive — and whatever condition God allows him to come here in, we’re going to love him just the same,” she said. The family has started a GoFundMe to help with various costs.
