http://www.kctv5.com/health/22599498/detail.htmlBUCHAREST, Romania -- A 25-year-old woman weighing 528 pounds (240 kilograms) gave birth to her first baby on Thursday in what one expert called a rare and risky case.
"I wanted this child with all my heart, whatever the sacrifice," the Adevarul newspaper quoted the mother, Victoria Lacatus, as saying.
Her healthy baby girl, born by cesarean section, weighed 6.4 pounds (2.9 kilograms), said Bogdan Popescu, a spokesman at Bucharest University Emergency Hospital, which is equipped to treat obese people.
Dr. Daghni Rasasingham, of Britain's Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists in London, said the case was rare, given the mother's weight and height of 5.25 feet (1.6 meters), and that she would be at risk of clots, diabetes, post-birth bleeding and infection.
Popescu said Lacatus was being carefully monitored because she suffers from a thyroid problem and post-surgery complications could develop because of her morbid obesity.
Florin Costandache, who helped perform the operation, said: "It was a real challenge because she needed four times the anesthetic a normal person needs."
The chief surgeon, obstetrician Valeriu Horhoianu, said at least 10 obese women have given birth at the Bucharest hospital, but they all weighed less than 352 pounds (160 kilograms).
Nicolae Cernea, a doctor from the southern city of Craiova -- where Lacatus was hospitalized for a month before delivery -- said her case was unique in Romania.
In August 2008, a heavier obese woman -- 560-pound (255-kilogram) Leanne Salt -- gave birth to triplets in Britain.
ponds from now on.