The brave parents who decided to carry their daughter to birth despite her being terminally ill, have opened up about their sad loss.
Royce and Keri Young were devastated to find out their baby Eva had fatal anencephaly at 19 weeks, but made the brave decision to carry her to term, in the hope that her organs could be used to help save someone’s life.
They recently confirmed that Eva had been born and Royce has since posted an essay online revealing how the couple endured further heartbreak.
Little Eva stopped moving two weeks before her due date and was stillborn.
Royce wrote about the heartbreaking moment when he and Keri realised little Eva had stopped moving at 37 weeks.
“Keri didn’t feel Eva move much that morning, but we both brushed it off and went to lunch. We came home, put Harrison down for a nap, and Keri sat down in her favourite spot and prodded Eva to move. She wouldn’t.
“We started to worry. Keri got up, walked around, drank cold water, ate some sugary stuff. She sat back down and waited. We decided to go to the hospital.
“'This is going to be bad, isn’t it?' I said.
“Keri erupted into tears and her body shook. I had my answer."
At the hospital, Keri’s doctors attempted to locate a heartbeat but couldn’t find one. They told the couple to get ready for a C-section.
“I freaked out. I just remember repeating, 'I’m not ready I’m not ready I’m not ready I’m not ready.' I was supposed to have two more weeks", Royce recalled.
A further ultrasound confirmed the couple’s worst fears, little Eva’s heart had stopped beating.
“Since there was no reason to control variables anymore, the doctors induced Keri into labour. The rest of Sunday and into Monday morning were the darkest, most painful hours of our lives", Royce wrote in his poignant essay.
A heartbroken Royce found the sad news hard to bear, writing: “We wouldn’t even see her alive. I struggled with the idea of Eva’s existence and her humanity all along, whether a terminal diagnosis made her dead already.
"I clung to knowing her humanity would be validated to me when I saw her as a living, breathing human being. I would hold my daughter and be her daddy.”
Eva was born on Monday afternoon and the couple were able to spend some precious time with her.
They were devastated at the idea of no longer being able to donate her organs but then they received one piece of good news.
They were still able to donate Eva’s eyes and a recipient for them had been found.
Eva became the first person in the state of Oklahoma to donate two whole eyes. In fact, no one had ever donated one entire eye, prior to this.
Royce says: “I had latched on to kidney or liver donation, grasping to the thought Eva would directly save a life.
“She’s not saving one like I dreamed of, but she will be changing one.
"We always knew organ transplant was only just a chance anyway, and a slim one at that. But we wanted to take it. Someone’s life is worth the chance.”
