ALS patient gives birth to baby boy

BEIJING - A woman with Lou Gehrig's disease gave birth to a baby boy Wednesday morning at a hospital in Beijing.

The baby, born at 35 weeks, is in intensive care at the Aviation General Hospital in northern Beijing.

Although about two weeks premature, the baby's weight was normal at 2.85 kg, said hospital president Gao Guolan, who performed a Cesarean section for the new mother, Lyu Yuanfang.

Lyu Yuanfang talks with her mother before she undergoes a Cesarean section at the Aviation General Hospital in Beijing on Jan 30. [Zou Hong/Asianewsphoto]

Lyu, 31, has Lou Gehrig's disease, also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a fatal, incurable neuromuscular disease that progresses rapidly.

She had to give birth via Cesarean section before 36 weeks of pregnancy in case her own health problems put the fetus at risk.

"The baby's birth marks a big success in our clinical research, " said Gao.

Lyu is believed to be the first ALS sufferer to give birth in China.

She was sent to the delivery room at 8:30 am and the baby was born about an hour later. "Lyu has woken up from the general anesthesia. Her condition is normal, but she is under observation, "

The couple named the baby Luo Guilong, said Lyu's husband Luo Zhongmu.

"'Gui' is another name for my hometown in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region and 'long' represents my wife's home province of Gansu," Luo said.

Luo and Lyu met in an online chat room in 2009. He was working at a chemical plant in Hangzhou, capital of East China's Zhejiang province, while Lyu was bedridden in her parents' apartment in Northwest China's province of Gansu.

They married in 2011 despite objections from Lyu's parents.