Nockolas Coke, a three-year-old boy died Oct. 31 after being born without a brain stem.
Coke suffered anencephaly, and there were no expectations of living more than few days. But the child survived three years and as his grandmother said he died at peace.
"He woke up this morning around six. He was breathing really really bad," Sherri Kohut, Nickolas' grandmother, told KOAA.com.
Doctors performed CPR but yielded no result.
"They told us no more, let him go," Kohut said referring to the boy's hospice care workers. "So he died at 12:40 today. Peacefully"
Kohut recalled her grandson's desire to attend the pumpkin festival. "He was laughing because he thought it was funny that we couldn't get him to stay still enough to roll off the pumpkins," she said.
The little boy fought the disease for three years.
"He was never hooked up to any machines, no tubes, no nothing," Kohut said. "He taught us everything, he taught us to love, how to be family. He taught us everything,"
Coke was cared and loved throughout his three years. His family recalls he was very happy during his last days.
U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM) defines anencephaly a condition of a brain and the bones of the skull which does not undergo a normal development. It's a very rare occurrence as 1 out of 10,000 births suffer with anencephaly. Mostly it results in miscarriage or the baby would survive few days. It was found by National Institutes of Health that low amount of folic acid consumed during pregnancy and environmental toxins cause anencephaly among babies.
"He was our hero because he showed the strength if I can do this anything can be done," Kohut told KOAA-TV. "He will always be remembered."
"I can't believe he's mine. He came to me," Ms. Coke said in grief. "He was sent here for a reason, whether it was for me to learn how to love more. But he's my angel. He's my everything."
