OB/GYN doctor explains how woman in vegetative state could have given birth

PHOENIX (KSAZ) - Questions still continue to swirl after a woman in a vegetative state gave birth to a baby at Hacienda Healthcare Facility.

Many are wondering: How could a woman in a vegetative state give birth?

All your organs are still functioning an a vegetative state, but the person has a lower level on consciousness, which is different from a person who is brain-dead.

"Her body is ovulating when she isn't pregnant, and putting out an egg each month," according to OB/GYN doctor Greg Marchand.

Marchand said - while he cannot speak to why no one noticed the pregnancy - it is very unusual that a full-term pregnancy went unnoticed.

Since a woman in a vegetative state does not have the ability to push the baby out, doctors would have to use special instruments to deliver the child.

It is also possible the mother felt pain during childbirth.

"She definitely could have felt pain," said Marchand. "There was no consciousness or understanding about what was going on. Certainly anyone with nervous tissue will feel pain and can respond to it."

Still, the primary question people seem to be asking has gone unanswered: Who did this? Phoenix police are still investigating.