A funeral is being held for a 26-year-old woman who gave birth to a baby boy on Thursday despite being brain dead since December.

Axar.az reports citing foreign media.

International sportswoman Catarina Sequeira was declared brain dead after an acute asthma attack at her home.

The baby, named Salvador, was born when she was almost 32 weeks pregnant and is being cared for in a neonatal hospital.

This is the second such case in Portugal of a baby born to a mother who was brain dead.

A talented canoeist who had represented her country, Sequeira had suffered from asthma since she was a child.

She suffered an asthma attack when she was 19 weeks pregnant and was put in an induced coma. However, her condition deteriorated and within days she was declared brain dead on 26 December, reports say. For 56 days a ventilator was attached to her to enable her baby to survive in her womb.