A Texas baby born with an incurable disease whose parents created an online "bucket list" for their daughter that became an Internet sensation has died, her father said on Tuesday.
Michael Canahuati said in a blog posting that five-and-a-half-month-old Avery died on Monday afternoon after going into cardiac arrest. The little girl was born in November with spinal muscular atrophy, a rare genetic disorder that doctors predicted would kill her before she turned 2.
"Avery's passing this quickly came as a complete shock to all of us, as she had just been given a thumbs up at her last doctors appointment only three days ago," Canahuati wrote on Tuesday.
He made the announcement on the website -- http://www.averycan.blogspot.com/ -- where over the past month he and his wife have been posting fanciful light-hearted blogs written as if penned by Avery herself.
Among the postings was a so-called "bucket list" of things Avery hoped to do before she died. The list included a number of goals -- to swim with dolphins, to get a manicure and pedicure and a tattoo -- that expressed an optimism the little girl would prove the doctors wrong and live a long, rich life.
Avery did many of the things mentioned on the list including moving her legs, tasting solid foods and visiting relatives.
The "Baby Avery" blogs have attracted more than 3 million page views since April, when they first began being posted, according to a counter on the website.