Adriana Smith was a 30-year-old nurse from Georgia who, in February 2025, began experiencing severe headaches. She sought medical attention but was discharged without a CT scan. Less than 24 hours later, her condition worsened, and she was rushed back to the hospital, where a CT scan revealed multiple blood clots in her brain. She deteriorated rapidly and was declared brain dead soon after.
At the time of her brain death, Smith was approximately nine weeks pregnant, a stage at which a fetus is not viable outside the womb.
Despite being declared brain dead—a legal and medical definition of death—Smith was kept on life support for over four months. This was not at her family’s request, but rather due to Georgia’s strict abortion ban (the LIFE Act), which prohibits abortion after fetal cardiac activity is detected, typically around six weeks of pregnancy.
On June 13, 2025, after more than 120 days on life support, Smith’s son, Chance, was delivered prematurely by emergency cesarean section. He was born about eight weeks early, weighing less than two pounds, and is currently in the neonatal intensive care unit.
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