Report: Child born without brain dies in Pueblo - natmonitor.com

Nickolas Coke, a child born without a brain, has died, according to KOAA.com.

"He was laughing because he thought it was funny that we couldn't get him to stay still enough to roll off the pumpkins," Sherri Kohut, Nickolas' grandmother, told KOAA.com.

Nickolas was not expected to live more than a few days. The "miracle" child had anencephaly, which means that he was only born with a brain stem.

According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), anencephaly is a condition that thwarts the normal development of the brain and the bones of the skull. Anencephaly results when the neural tube fails to close during the first few weeks of embryonic development.

The three-year-old child passed away Wednesday due to a virus, his grandmother contends.

"He woke up this morning around six. He was breathing really really bad," Ms. Kohut said.

Doctors performed CPR but to no avail.

"They told us no more, let him go. So he died at 12:40 today. Peacefully," Ms. Kohut added.

The U.S. NLM notes that anencephaly is a very common type of neural tube defect. However, most of the 1 in 1,000 pregnancies in which anencephaly occurs end in miscarriage, meaning that the prevalence of this condition in infants is much lower (approximately 1 in 10,000 infants).

The NLM adds that most cases on anencephaly are sporadic, which means they take place in babies with no history of the disorder in their family.

His grandmother says that Nickolas will be remembered as a hero.

"I want to thank everybody for their support of us. No one understood what we had to go through, but there were a lot of exceptional people out there that had kind words and respect for our family to understand Nicky was here for a reason," Ms. Kohut said.

KOAA.com notes that the family will be setting up a bank account at U.S. Bank so that donations can be made to help the family deal with funeral expenses.

KOAA.com has been following Nickolas for quite some time. The Colorado Springs and Pueblo news station ran a report when he turned two, chronicling his journey since being born without a brain stem.

"It's just been an emotional roller coaster ever since the day he was born," his mom, Sheena Coke, told KOAA.com when Nickolas turned two. "We're just really lucky that he's made it to be 2."

"I can't believe he's mine. He came to me," Ms. Coke said at the time. "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."

Nickolas is not the first child, born without part or all of his brain, to defy doctors' expectations by living longer or completing tasks that experts thought would be impossible to accomplish.

Chase Britton, a three-year-old boy completely missing his cerebellum, defied his doctors' expectations by learning to walk. The cerebellum, it should be noted, is the part of the brain that controls motor skills, balance and emotions.

Nickolas and Chase are reminders that the human body and the human spirit will never cease to amaze.