She chose to die so she could give birth. Now her newborn is dead, too.

Carrie DeKlyen, 37, found out she was pregnant with her sixth child, Life, after doctors found a terminal brain tumor that was causing her extreme headaches. Photo / Cure 4 Carrie / Facebook

A two-week-old premature baby who was delivered while her cancer-stricken mother was in a coma has died - just 10 days after her mother passed away.

Life DeKlyen was born on September 6, 24 weeks and five days premature, after doctors performed an emergency caesarean section in hopes to save her and her mother, reports the Daily Mail.

But mother Carrie DeKlyen, 37, died three days later, as her body was no longer able to handle the stage 4 glioblastoma multiforme crippling her brain.

At the time of the birth, Carrie was unconscious. She had a stroke at the end of July, which sent her into a five-week coma. Eventually, as both Carrie and her unborn child weakened, doctors decided they had to operate.

However, early this morning the family announced that both Life and Carrie have now passed.

Life's aunt, Sonya DeKlyen Nelson, Carrie's sister-in-law, said in a Facebook post: "It is with great sadness and a absolutely broken heart that I tell you Life Lynn passed away last night. Carrie is now rocking her baby girl. I have no explanation of why this happened, but I do know Jesus loves us and someday we will know why."

Carrie was diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme, a lethal brain cancer, in April and found out two weeks later that she was pregnant.

She decided to forgo chemotherapy in order to keep her child and give her a chance of surviving.

The doctors tried to get Carrie to 27 weeks pregnant before having Life, but the stress of the pregnancy was too much on the mother.

They decided on September 6 to perform the surgery in a desperate attempt to save both the baby and Carrie.

Doctors thought that Life would have a chance of survival, but her low oxygen levels, abnormal blood pressure and rising fluid in her brain were too much for the premature baby.

She died today, just two weeks after she was born.

Carrie's breathing and feeding tubes were removed on Thursday after the birth and her husband said she was hours away from dying.

'My wife loves the Lord and she loves her children more than anything,' Nick Deklyen, husband said the Friday before Carrie died.

'It's painful,' he added. 'But this is what she wanted. She wanted to protect this child.'
Carrie discovered she was pregnant in April, days after she was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumour, the same one John McCain has.

On July 28, at just 19 weeks, Carrie suffered a traumatic stroke. She was unconscious on and off a ventilator ever since.

Doctors at the University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor were trying to wait till end of September for Life to be delivered at 28 weeks, but they decided on Wednesday that they could not wait any longer, as the baby had been moving less and less and they were worried she would die in Carrie's womb.

Surgeons warned the family that Carrie could die on the table during the delivery because she still relied on a machine to help her breathe and the cancer had worn down her body.

Her baby survived the delivery, weighing 1lb and 4oz. But Carrie's body was no longer capable of handling the damage from the cancer.

Carrie DeKlyen, 37, died on September 9 after doctors removed her breathing and feeding tubes a few days after she gave birth to her daughter. Photo / Facebook

Carrie was diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme diagnosis, a terminal brain tumour that was originally the size of a clementine.

At the time, she and her husband Nick, 39, didn't know she was pregnant.

When she found out she decided to forgo chemotherapy to keep the child. Although it could have extended her life and shrunk the tumour, it would have killed the baby.

Doctors have yet to test the risks of chemotherapy on a baby during the first trimester.

Those first months are crucial for a baby because most of the internal organs are developing and the drugs could hinder that.

Chemotherapy is also more likely to cause a miscarriage during the first trimester.
So Carrie opted for radiation treatment in hopes it would keep herself alive long enough to have her child.

She also had two surgeries, one to try to remove the tumour and the other to drain the liquid, but both have no helped her situation.

People with this aggressive form of brain cancer only have a 10 percent chance of surviving five years after diagnosis.

The mother, from Wyoming, Michigan, had been unresponsive at the hospital since the end of July.

Doctors had to put her into a medically induced coma after she suffered a dangerous stroke from the tumour that continues to grow in her brain.

The stroke left her off and on a ventilator for over a month as she fought to breathe on her own without exerting too much energy on her body.

Towards the beginning of her coma, she was responsive and would occasionally open her eyes or move her limbs.

Doctors were hopeful that she would maybe even wake up from the coma once the swelling in her brain went down.

But the tumour continued to grow and with that growth comes the need to constantly drain her skull from excess fluid.

Doctors tested Life's size and health at the end of August because they were worried about her viability outside of the womb.

She measured in the three percentile range for size at 24 weeks and five days old.

Her mobility grew less and less over the weeks, which prompted the doctors to decide to deliver her tonight for fear that she would die in Carrie's womb if they didn't.

At 24 weeks, Life was considered in the extremely preterm category.

She had also developed a small amount of fluid in her brain.

This fluid can cause minor symptoms for Life or severe brain damage, and continued to increase the two weeks she was alive.

On average, 63 percent of babies born at 24 weeks survive in the United States, and Life is now another baby who so far is doing OK outside the womb.

The normal gestation period for an infant is 40 weeks old.

Some problems that doctors were worried about when they deliver a baby this young is the high risk of developing a neurological disability.

These disabilities can include something as severe as an inability to walk or control their muscles or something mild such as having a learning disability.

Nick said that they originally expected her to remain in the hospital for four to five months to get her larger and more healthy.

Life was briefly gaining weight and able to breath occasionally on her own.

But she wasn't able to remain stable for long. Her oxygen levels plummeted and the fluid in her brain rose concerning doctors.

Today she died just two weeks after she was born.

Carrie's husband Nick has been staying at the Ronald McDonald House in Ann Arbor, Michigan, since Carrie went unconscious so he can be close to his wife and baby while they fight for their lives.

Carrie and Nick have five other children besides Life: Elijah, 18; Isaiah, 16; Nevaeh, 11; Leila, four; and Jez, two.

Sonya DeKlyen Nelson, Nick's sister, created a Facebook page, Cure 4 Carrie, to keep family, friends and supporters updated on Carrie's struggle during her cancer diagnosis.

She also created a GoFundMe page to help raise awareness of what the family is going through to help pay for Carrie and the baby's care.

So far, the page has made close to $160,000 with more than three thousand shares on Facebook.