Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, April 7, 1995                   TAG: 9504070091
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: FAIRFAX                                LENGTH: Short

`BABY K' DIES 'IN PEACE' AT AGE 2 1/2

Her groundbreaking case forced Fairfax Hospital to keep her alive whenever she had trouble breathing and was taken to its emergency room. And it was there this week that Stephanie Keene died of cardiac arrest after being rushed from a nearby pediatric nursing center where she lived.

``She's in heaven. She's in peace,'' the child's mother, Contrenia Harrell, said Thursday from her home in Springfield.

``Knowing that she's with God is a comfort,'' said Harrell, whose deep faith told her there was always hope for her daughter, even as doctors insisted there was none.

Stephanie, who doctors said could not think, hear or see, died Wednesday afternoon, 30 minutes after being taken by ambulance to Fairfax Hospital for the sixth time.

Harrell and a friend, Larry Bright, arrived shortly afterward and spent several minutes alone with the child.

Stephanie was born Oct. 13, 1992, with a congenital defect of unknown cause called anencephaly, in which a major portion of the skull and brain are missing. Between 1,000 and 2,000 such babies are born each year in the United States, but most live only a few days, doctors say.