Mother gives birth to dying baby to donate organs

A Tennessee mother is faced with a hard decision to make at 18 weeks pregnant.

When Krysta Davis and her boyfriend learned their daughter, Rylei Arcadia Diane Lovett, had developed a rare condition in which her brain and bones in her skull did not form correctly in the womb, they had two options from doctors.

Because Rylei would likely not survive more than 30 minutes after birth, doctors said they could either induce labor immediately or Krysta could carry the child to full term and donate her organs.

“It was definitely shocking. It was a huge heartbreak knowing that we’d miscarried previously and were having complications with this pregnancy. It was really hard to take in,” Davis told PEOPLE magazine.

The doctor told Krysta and her boyfriend that babies with the condition Rylei had, known as anencephaly, don’t tend to survive, so the couple made the choice they felt to be right: deliver Rylei.

“We decided that even if we couldn’t bring our daughter home, no mother would have to go through what we were going to go through,” said Davis.

Rylei was born on Christmas Eve, weighing six pounds. She survived a week before passing away on New Year’s Eve — fairly long for her condition.

“It’s like she was fighting to give us more time. It was amazing,” Davis said. “She surprised everyone by being alive for that week.”

After her passing, two of Rylei’s heart valves were donated to children in need and her lungs were donated to a research foundation dedicated to finding treatment for anencephaly, according to WTVC-TV.

Davis and her boyfriend, Derek Lovett documented their journey and shared it on a Facebook page titled, “Rylei Arcadia: An Unexpected Journey.”