Father’s Grieving Wish Answered

Nathan Steffel posted the story of his daughter Sophia’s short 6 week life on social news outlet Reddit along with a plea to help him remember her without the tubes surrounding her in the hospital.

“Photoshop Request: My daughter recently passed away after a long battle in the children’s hospital. Since she was in the hospital her whole life we never were able to get a photo without all her tubes. Can someone remove the tubes from this photo?”

Sophia passed away on July 10th due to hepatic hemangioma, a benign tangled mass of blood vessels in the liver.  Hepatic hemangiomas are believed to be congenital (meaning a person is born with it) and while it isn’t clear what causes them to form, most cases are diagnosed in people ages 30-50.  Females are at a greater risk of being diagnosed with liver hemangioma than men.

Rare in infants, hepatic hemangiomas have been linked to high rates of heart failure and death – most are usually diagnosed by the age of 6 months old.

“She was on the waiting list for her liver when she passed from complications involving the pressure on her abdomen due to the hemangioma,” Steffel wrote.

Within days the post had received thousands of replies and dozens of fellow users had posted images of Sophia – some photoshopped, some appearing to be hand drawn or hand painted.

“This is really amazing,” Steffel wrote. “Everyone, you have made my day. All I wanted was a nice picture. What I received was a lot of love and support from a bunch of strangers.”

Original picture and some of the many submissions are below:

Images courtesy of: Reddit and the wonderful artists who helped the Steffel family

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