Stillwater officer dies after suffering rare pregnancy syndrome, Friends and family members of officer Brienne Heroux were asked to come say goodbye a week ago.

She gave birth to her son, Leland Earl Heroux, at St. John's Hospital on Aug. 30 by emergency cesarean section and never really woke up, family members say. They took her off life support Sunday.

Heroux, 30, had been diagnosed with HELLP, a rare but serious illness in pregnancy that lowers blood platelets and can damage the liver. On the evening of Sept. 5, friends and fellow police officers were lining the halls of St. John's to say goodbye.

Leland, who had needed surgery at Children's Hospital in St. Paul, was rushed to his mother's hospital room so he could be baptized in her arms before she died.

But doctors the next day found signs that Heroux had brain activity and transferred her to St. Joseph's Hospital in St. Paul and then to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester. Doctors there said she needed a liver transplant. Heroux underwent a lengthy transplant that ended Thursday morning, but she never recovered.

Pioneer Press by Mary Divine, 09/15/09

Tags: HELLP, Mayo Clinic Rochester