‘He’s Healed My Heart’ — Widow Gives Birth to Late Husband’s Child 14 Months After He Passed Away

Aug 24, 2021

A woman who lost her husband in February 2020 has given birth to his baby through fertility treatments. Sarah Shellenberg and her husband Scott had been struggling to have a baby when they were advised to try IVF. They had just finished egg retrieval at a Barbados fertility clinic when Scott suddenly had a heart attack at his job as a science professor.

The couple decided to travel to Barbados for the egg retrieval to save on costs, and when Sarah was traveling home from her second retrieval she got the news of her husband’s heart attack. Sarah decided to continue their journey of trying to have a child six months after her husband had passed. She was able to get pregnant with Scott’s baby by using the frozen embryos, and in May 2021 gave birth to their son Hayes.

The couple married in 2018 and had the first egg retrieval done in December 2019. They were together when they found out it was a boy. Sarah and Scott picked out names for their two successful embryos and planned their life together. Unfortunately, those dreams were cut short due to an unexpected medical emergency.

Tragically, after Scott’s heart attack he never regained consciousness and was declared brain dead. After his passing Sarah knew Scott would have wanted her to bring their children into the world. She said that in their eyes those embryos were already their kids and there was no other option. Keep reading to learn more about this incredible story.

Scott was always on board with the IVF process and got to be there for the beginning, which is something Sarah is very grateful for. She shared: "For the first round, we ended up getting one genetically normal embryo and that turned out to be Hayes. We found out just before Christmas that he was a boy. Scott and I were able to pick out names before he died and that was really meaningful.”

After the success of the first embryo, the couple knew they wanted to try again. Sarah said, "We decided to go back in February for another retrieval while I still had as many eggs as possible." On her way back home from Barbados, Sarah flew to Oklahoma via Toronto.

"When I landed in Toronto and I finally connected to the WiFi my phone was going crazy," Sarah recalled. "I had all these text messages coming through - the first one I saw was from one of Scott's coworkers telling me that they were all gathered here praying for Scott.”

Sarah was shocked to hear about her husband’s heart attack. “I called his mom and she told me that he had had a heart attack and been moved to the ICU and he had not regained consciousness," she said. After some time, a neurologist told her that her husband was brain dead. 

“I couldn't believe it. There are no words to describe that feeling. I decided I wanted to donate his organs so I filled out all the paperwork. On Friday, February 21 I had to go and say goodbye to him. That was the hardest thing I've ever done," Sarah shared. Scott donated his liver and kidneys, which saved the lives of three people.

Sarah knew how important being a father was to Scott. "It was our biggest dream - Scott wanted to be a dad," she said. The couple had completed the paperwork before starting the fertility process, which includes what would happen to the embryos if a spouse passed away. Sarah explained, "We had said we wanted the remaining spouse to do what they wanted with the embryo."

After her son was born, though she was still grieving the loss of her husband, Sarah said, "Holding Hayes has been such good medicine for me and he has healed my heart in a lot of ways. It is bittersweet because I know that Scott would have been over the moon in love with him and it is hard to experience these things without him.”

She added, “I absolutely see Scott in him. It feels like things are starting to look brighter and that maybe my life isn't over and I have a purpose.”

On her Instagram, Sarah shared in a post: “A year and 4 months into life without Scott, so much has changed. I’m soaking up these precious days in my newest and greatest role as a mom and am so in love with our sweet boy. I look at this picture, we were on the tractor, sweating our faces off but so happy.”

She continued, “My new home is perfect for me and Hayes and the animals. I’m so grateful, but goodness- what I wouldn’t give to have my old life and my current life align. To be a wife to Scott and a mama to Hayes at the same time would have been the biggest dream come true.”

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