by Whitney Barthel posted in Life

At 19 weeks pregnant, Royce and Keri Young?s unborn daughter was diagnosed with anencephaly. Doctors described the rare condition to the Youngs as ?incompatible with life.?

Royce Young wrote on Medium, ?So we sat in a doctor?s office, five months before our daughter was set to be born, knowing she would die.
The options weren?t great. There was a) inducing early, which in effect was terminating the pregnancy or b) continuing the pregnancy to full-term...
Within a minute or so of finding out, Keri asked if we could donate the baby?s organs if we went to full-term...
We decided to continue [the pregnancy], and chose the name Eva for our girl, which means ?giver of life.?"

The family met with an organization called LifeShare and learned they would be just the eighth family in the state of Oklahoma to donate the organs of an infant, and the first ever at their chosen hospital. Young wrote, ?They were developing a protocol on the fly. There was a laminated sheet and everything. There were plans and contingency plans, and contingency plans for the contingency plans.? Keri Young?s cesarean section was scheduled for May 2nd, so the couple waited. But then, on the day Keri reached 37 weeks pregnant, April 16th, she stopped feeling baby Eva. The couple rushed to the hospital where a nurse confirmed their worst fears -- there was no heartbeat.
Knowing organs need constant oxygenated blood to be viable for organ transplantation, the Youngs were...