A brain-dead pregnant woman who has been kept on life support for nearly three months to give her foetus time to develop, died yesterday a day after giving birth to a healthy baby girl.

The baby, Susan Anne Catherine Torres, weighed 1lb 13oz (812 grams) and "is doing well", the woman's brother-in-law Justin Torres said in an email to the Associated Press.

The infant was delivered on Tuesday by caesarean section.

Susan Torres, a 26-year-old health researcher, lost consciousness from a stroke on May 7 after aggressive melanoma spread to her brain.

Her husband, Jason Torres, said doctors had told him his wife's brain functions had stopped.

He resigned from his job to be by his wife's side.

Last month her foetus passed the earliest point at which doctors felt the baby would have a reasonable chance of survival.

Ms Torres was about seven months pregnant when the child was delivered. The stricken woman died yesterday after her life support was switched off.

A website to help raise money for the family's mounting medical bills has received about $400,000 (£225,000) in donations from around the world. The family says they have to pay tens of thousands of dollars each week in costs not covered by insurance.

The infant is being monitored in the neonatal intensive care unit at the Virginia hospital centre in Arlington.