iStock/Thinkstock(CHICAGO) — A heartbreaking story of an unborn baby being cut from his mother’s abdomen has become even more tragic.
Authorities said the little boy died Friday after being in the hospital for more than seven weeks.
The baby’s mother, Marlen Ochoa-Lopez, was 9 months pregnant when she was killed, which police believe happened on April 23 when she responded to a Facebook post offering free baby clothes.
Her attackers cut the child from her body and took the newborn to a local hospital, claiming it was their own.
The child, which the family later named Yovanny Jadiel Lopez, was treated in the neonatal intensive care unit at a Chicago area hospital.
ABC station WLS reported that the hospital contacted the state’s Department of Children and Family Services on May 9, more than two weeks after the baby was first checked into the hospital.
The child was put on life support, according to The Associated Press, and prosecutors earlier described the newborn as being in grave condition with no brain activity.
A spokesperson for the family announced the death of the baby on Friday morning, saying in a statement that the death was attributed to his “severe brain injury.”
“Please keep his family in your thoughts & prayers as they go through this difficult time,” the family said in a statement.
A private funeral will be held.
The remains of Ochoa-Lopez, who was 19 years old at the time of her death, were found at the home of her suspected attackers.
Clarisa and Desiree Figueroa, a mother-daughter pair, have been charged with murder, while Clarisa Figueroa’s 40-year-old boyfriend Piotr Bobak has been charged with helping to cover up the alleged crime. All three appeared in Cook County Court in mid-May and were denied release on bail.
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