Olivia LaForte King was born on July 2, 2022. Her parents, Jenna and Ben King, welcomed her into their loving family and couldn’t wait to take Livie home to meet her big brother, Luca.

Shortly after her birth, Olivia experienced life-threatening apneic events and she was rushed to Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU. In addition to reoccurring “blue spells”, other alarming signs and symptoms included the inability to feed on her own, bradycardia events, small head size (post-natal microcephaly), hypotonia, and delayed myelination. After 2 weeks of undergoing many tests during the first phase of her NICU stay, Olivia remained undiagnosed.

Olivia was then transferred to UVA Children’s Hospital where she underwent broad genetic testing, and at 6-weeks old, she was diagnosed with an extremely rare neurological disorder, called “EEF1A2 related neurodevelopmental disorder”.

Olivia was discharged from the hospital at 2.5 months old, and finally went home to live with her family for 7 weeks before passing away in the comfort of her mother’s arms on October 30, 2022. Olivia felt loved every second of her life.

Olivia inspired her parents to establish “Olivia’s Light”; a non-profit that will impact children with genetic disorders, medical complexities and severe disabilities.

If you’re interested in learning more about Olivia’s Story, her eulogy (written by her mother) provides additional details and can be found here.