In the intensive care unit of a hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, lies a patient whose fate has set millions of her fellow Americans at each other’s throats.
They’re not fighting, however, over 30-year-old Adriana Smith’s right to live – but her right to die.
Adriana, a local nurse, was nine weeks pregnant when she went to a hospital back in February seeking treatment for intense headaches. Doctors sent her home with some medication but they didn’t conduct a CT scan. The next morning she woke up struggling to breathe and making terrifying gargling sounds.
The hospital discovered she had blood clots in her brain and, after an unsuccessful surgery to relieve the pressure, she was declared brain-dead.
Given she already has a seven-year-old son who will now be left without a mother, the situation for Adriana and her loved ones was already terrible.
