An unborn baby diagnosed with a fatal birth defect who garnered national support through his parents died just a few hours after he was born, The New York Daily News reported.
Parents Jenna Gassew and Dan Heley did all they could with their unborn son, creating a bucket list with places to experience as a family to make the best of the time they had together.
The Philadelphia couple welcomed Shane Michael Haley into the world Thursday at 2:25 a.m. He died less than four hours later.
"Today at 6:15 a.m., after meeting his entire family and being baptized into the Catholic faith, baby Shane died peacefully in his Mother's arms," the couple wrote on the Prayers for Shane Facebook page. "We are so grateful for the time that we were blessed to hold and hug our son."
Baby Shane was diagnosed with anencephaly, a rare birth defect where parts of the brain and skull do not develop, according to the Cleveland Clinic. One in 5,000 babies are born with the defect every year, with most being stillborn or dying hours later.
Gassew and Haley, who are Catholic, knew about the defect but did not seek an abortion due to their religious beliefs, the New York Daily News reported.
"It's the hardest thing in the world but you can make it through" Gassew told NBC Philadelphia when she was pregnant. "We're his parents and we're going to take care of him as long as we can."
So they did all they could with Shane before his birth, taking him to places like the zoo and baseball games while checking off their destinations on a bucket list. They posted pictures of the family trips on the Facebook page Prayers for Shane, which has received over 800,000 likes.
"Shane spent his entire life in the arms of people that loved him unconditionally and I don't think you could ask for a more beautiful life than that," the family wrote on Facebook.
