Niamh Shackleton
Alex Simpson is making history at the age of 20 years old.
Nebraska-born Alex was a healthy and happy baby, but her family got the shock of a lifetime when she received a devastating health diagnosis at just two months old.
Doctors informed her parents that she has hydranencephaly, a rare birth defect that affects a baby's brain development.
Per Cleveland Clinic, the condition is when a baby 'is missing certain portions of their brain called the cerebral hemispheres' and occurs in one in 5,000 to one in 10,000 pregnancies.
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In Alex's case, she was born with no brain - all that's there is half a pinky-finger's worth of the organ in the back of her cerebellum, says her dad.
With her devastating diagnosis in mind, Alex's parents, Shawn and Lorena Simpson, were given a very bleak prognosis and were told it was unlikely that their daughter would live past the age of four.
However, in what many are describing as a miracle, Alex recently celebrated her 20th birthday.
When asked by KETV how Alex managed to make the milestone birthday, her doting parents simply replied with 'love'.
Shawn went on to tell the news channel: "Twenty years ago we were scared, but faith, I think, is really what kept us alive."
Alex cannot see or hear because of her hydranencephaly, but her loved ones insist that she can sense when they're near.
"You can see that when I went up there and talked to her a little bit ago, she was looking for me," Shawn said.
Alex's younger brother SJ echoed similar sentiments. The teenager shared: "Say somebody’s stressed around her. Nothing will even happen — it could be completely silent — but Alex will know. She’ll feel something."
Speaking back in 2016 at the time of Alex's 10th birthday, her mom spoke of how scary it was in Alex's first years.
"It was terrible to not know if she was going to make it through the night," Lorena told Daily Mail.
"So for three years, I would sleep with her, making sure that she’s breathing, making sure that she’s moving.
"Every night I was praying and praying she’d make it through."
Also speaking at the time, Shawn shared his hopes that people would understand that Alex's life still has value despite her disability.
He said: "A lot of people think she’s just a vegetable, and we have heard tons of negative comments.
"It’s one of our missions in life to let people know that just because people are disabled doesn’t mean they don’t have a right to enjoy life as much as possible."