In June 2025, expectant Florida mother Catherine Mornhineway received devastating news at her 14-week ultrasound appointment. Her unborn baby likely had anencephaly, a condition that the baby’s brain would not fully develop and would not survive after birth. Most people, Mornhineway and her partner Adam Ford were told, choose to terminate such pregnancies. Unsure of what to do, Mornhineway saw an Instagram post mentioning an episode of “Grey’s Anatomy” about a mother who found herself in a similar situation. The mother had her baby and donated the baby’s organs. “I was just like, ‘That’s my little girl.’ I’m going to carry her and spend as long as I can with her,” decided Mornhineway.

Such donations are very rare but very needed. More than 100 children under the age of 1 are on an organ recipient waiting list. Mornhineway received care Women’s Center at HCA Florida Brandon Hospital and was assigned nurse navigator Laurie Van Damme. Van Damme reached out to Lifelink, an organ procurement organization that operates in the southwest Florida region. “I knew it was going to be something we were going to see through and kind of fight for. They put me in contact with someone in their organization that was willing to walk down that road with me and, more importantly, with them,” said Van Damme.

The couple had to inform their two young children that their baby sister would be going to Heaven. They explained the situation to their oldest daughter, who was twelve. “We just wanted her to understand completely and wholly what was gonna happen, so that she was never confused and didn’t feel like we hid it from her,” said Ford.

Haven Sariah Renee Ford was born Dec. 11 at 10:31 p.m. at 6 pounds. She was put on life support to preserve her organs for procurement. She lived for four days that way, with family coming to meet her. “Everybody that held her cried, you know, but was also happy they got to meet her,” said Ford. On her last day on earth, the family took Haven outside to feel the sun. She passed away while the family slept, making her the youngest donor Lifelink recovery surgeon Jacentha Buggs ever operated on.

Despite the pain, her family lives with the hope that Haven’s short life will help another family in need. “It’s a life, and it’s just such a beautiful experience even knowing what we had to do and what was going to happen,” Ford said. “It’s just so worth it.” It’s a road that is almost unimaginable for any parent. Yet their hope remains strong. “Our little one will be someone else’s miracle.”