Baby at center of LA-Texas surrogacy legal battle undergoes heart surgery, attorney says
The couple now has custody of the child.
LOS ANGELES -- A Los Angeles couple involved in alegal battle with their surrogatesays their infant son is recovering after undergoing the first of three surgeries required to treat a life-threatening heart condition.
Omar Ahmed and Nausheen Gilkar hired McKenna West to serve as their surrogate. During the pregnancy, the fetus West was carrying was diagnosed with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a life-threatening condition.
West said Ahmed and Gilkar wanted to terminate the pregnancy. West, who lives in Alaska, left for Texas and gave birth last week to a boy the couple named Rumi. Anti-abortion activists refer to the infant as "Baby Gabriel."
The couple now has custody of the child.
A statement released by Lee Budner, the couple's attorney, said that the baby underwent "a complex palliative heart surgery" that is the first of three surgeries required for his condition.
"My clients immediately provided consent for the surgery to occur at the hospital's earliest availability. Rumi was taken into the operating room for surgery earlier this morning (August 17th)," the statement said in part. "His condition remains critical and complex, and his family seeks privacy in caring for their son on his long road to recovery."
The statement said he is now recuperating with his parents.
