A mother and her husband had to make a terrible decision after learning that their baby was terminally ill in the womb and that she would live only a few hours after birth.
Keri Young and her husband, Royce, informed the doctors that they wanted to complete the pregnancy for a wonderful reason: Eve’s organs, as they named their little one, could save many lives, so they wanted the baby’s life to make sense.
At the 19-week ultrasound, the doctors discovered that Eva had a rare disease, but they chose not to terminate the pregnancy, but to continue it. Eva was born in May 2016 and until then her mother continued to give news about the pregnancy on Facebook. She wrote the following in such a post:
“This is our daughter’s, perfect heart. She has perfect feet and perfect hands. She has perfect kidneys, perfect lungs, and a perfect liver. Sadly, she doesn’t have a perfect brain. We found out recently she has anencephaly and is terminal.
Faced with terrible options we have decided to continue the pregnancy to full term so Eva, which literally means life, can grow strong and give life to multiple people through organ donation. This was not an easy decision. For the next 20 weeks, I will feel her kick, have the hiccups and we’ll be able to hear her perfect heart beating all while knowing we’ll only get a few short hours with her when she’s born. As you might expect, we’re devastated but have an amazing support system with our family, friends, church, and doctors.
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We’re choosing to try and see the positives in this situation and cherish our time with Eva, and be grateful for the impact she will have on the world in the short amount of time she’ll spend in it.”