LONDON - A former British champion ice skater has given birth two days after she collapsed and died from a brain haemorrhage.
Jayne Soliman had been declared brain-dead but doctors kept her heart beating long enough for her daughter Aya Jayne to be delivered by caesarean section, British
newspapers reported on Tuesday.
The 41-year-old, who was 25 weeks pregnant, collapsed in her bedroom at her home in England after complaining of a headache, London's Daily Telegraph reported on its website.
She was airlifted to John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford on January 7, but died just hours later.
Her daughter was delivered two days later, weighing just under one kilogram (two pounds, one ounce).
For 48 hours doctors had pumped large doses of steroids into her body to help the baby's lungs develop.
Her husband, Mahmoud Soliman, was with her when the child was born.
Speaking to the Daily Mail from the couple's home in Bracknell, Berkshire, Soliman recalled his wife's last hours: "The doctors told me there was nothing they could do for Jayne but they needed her to stay strong for 48 hours to help our unborn child."
Soliman had been healthy throughout her pregnancy, and continued working as a coach at Bracknell Skating Club. She was on the ice last Wednesday before she suddenly collapsed in her bedroom after complaining of a headache, the Mail reported on its website.
Doctors told her devastated husband that an aggressive tumour had rapidly developed in her brain in just a few weeks - and had suddenly ruptured a major blood vessel.
But although she had suffered brain death, her heart could still be kept pumping on a life-support machine, and the doctors were hopeful her daughter could be born.
Baby Aya - her name is a word from the Koran meaning miracle - was now doing well in hospital, the Mail reported.
Soliman's funeral was held in Reading on Saturday, with 300 mourners including many from the skating world.
Soliman, formerly Jayne Campbell, was British Free Skating champion in 1989, the same year she was rated seventh in the world.
- AAP
