Eli Thomson, born with arhinia in 2015, has died aged two. Photo: Facebook/Jeremy Finch
He's the baby who stole everyone's hearts just over two years ago. Born without a nose due to arhinia, an extremely rare condition that affects only one in 197 million births, little Eli Thomson hit headlines as his a "miracle baby".
But in a heartbreaking statement posted on Facebook on June 5, his family has announced that Eli has passed away aged 2.
Jeremy Finch posted, "We lost our little buddy last night. I'll never be able to make sense of why this happened, and this will hurt deeply for a long time. But I'm so blessed to have had this beautiful boy in my life! He finished his race a lot earlier than we would have liked, but it was God's time to bring him back home.
"I'll forever look forward to seeing him at the gates of Heaven waiting on me to give me another one of his famous fist bumps! I love you little man. Rest in peace with my Father."
Photo:
ABC News
Eli's parents were unaware of his condition until he was born. His mother Brandy McGlathery told
ABC News at the time, "When he was born, he came out and the doctor put him on my chest. When I took a closer look at him, I said, 'He doesn't have a nose', and they took him out of the room."
After a number of tests, baby Eli was pronounced healthy and a tracheotomy was performed when he was 5 days old so he could breathe while he ate.
His mum spoke of the impact the little boy had already had on people, saying he was "very, very bright and happy, always smiling and giving everybody fist bumps."
Eli died at 10.40 pm on June 3 at Springhill Medical Centre in Mobile, Alabama. It is not yet publicly known what caused his death.
Eli had just started speech therapy using a speaking valve and was proficient in baby signing, Finch explained, adding that Eli loved to sign "cookie" first thing in the morning.
"He touched a lot of people's lives. A lot of people cared about him," he said.
More than 550 messages of condolence have been left on the
announcement post, a testament to how very much Eli was loved.
