A local couple is hoping for divine intervention after learning doctors have exhausted all treatments for the miracle baby they waited years to bless their lives.

After holding out hope for months, Blackfoot residents Marci Shelman and Tristan Dederscheck have been told to start preparing for end-of-life arrangements for their 4-month-old baby boy, Riot, who has spent all but two days of his life inside the neonatal intensive care unit at Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City.

Born almost seven weeks early, Riot was clinically diagnosed with neonatal Marfan syndrome, a rare disorder affecting the connective tissues that support and anchor organs and other structures in the body.

Shelman, 35, discovered she was pregnant in January, two days after her birthday. She and Dederscheck, 38, had been trying to welcome a baby into their lives for three years and were exploring IVF options before learning of Riot’s conception.

“He was our miracle because we didn’t do any treatments to get him,” Shelman said.

Everything appeared normal until the 20-week anatomy scan, when doctors noticed differences and referred Shelman to specialists at Primary Children’s fetal center.

“The one thing that was always the same was his heart and his valves not functioning properly,” Shelman said.

By 26 weeks, Shelman had started going into preterm labor.

“They said he’s gonna come soon. We just don’t know when, but it was too late for them to intervene,” she said.

During her best friend’s wedding in August, Shelman went into labor and was flown from Portneuf Medical Center in Pocatello to Salt Lake City for delivery. After being four centimeters dilated with no progress for two days, doctors felt comfortable letting her go home.

As she and Dederscheck prepared to leave, her water broke. The couple drove back to Idaho, made it to Portneuf, and Riot was born at 2:14 a.m. on Aug. 6. He was stabilized at Portneuf and flown to Primary Children’s that same night.

The birth defect affects Riot’s heart and lungs, Shelman said. His heart valves don’t close properly, causing blood to flow back and forth without proper oxygenation. His enlarged heart has compressed his left lung and caused his right lung to overextend, resulting in severe respiratory distress.

“He can’t get the proper oxygen to his body,” Shelman said.

After 91 days at Primary Children’s, Riot came home Nov. 6. But just two days later, he was life-flighted back to Salt Lake City on Nov. 8 in more critical condition.

On Monday, doctors gave Shelman devastating news — they had exhausted all treatment options and needed to discuss end-of-life arrangements.

“They have tried everything this go around,” Shelman said. “When they came in to talk to me, they said that they have exhausted everything, and it is now time to start thinking about end of life. I knew it was coming, honestly, but it wasn’t real until they just sat me down to call his dad and have that conversation.”

The couple chose the name Riot after watching their son puzzle doctors throughout the pregnancy. Each scan revealed something different — conditions appeared and disappeared, leaving specialists uncertain about his diagnosis.

“Every time we had a new scan, it was changing, and he was just puzzling the doctors,” Shelman said. “Every scan was something different appeared, something different went away. So I’m like, this kid is going to cause chaos, and that’s how we knew he was going to cause a riot. He has done so since the day he was born.”

Despite the grim prognosis, Shelman remains grateful for the time she’s spent with her son.

“I’m lucky because I’ve gotten to be here with him every day,” she said. “It’s his dad who’s not had that chance.”

Dederscheck, who delivers packages for Amazon, works three to four days a week and visits on his days off, making the nearly three-hour drive between Blackfoot and Salt Lake City.

Originally created to ease the financial strain of travel and mounting medical bills, the family created a GoFundMe campaign on Aug. 23. The couple initially set a modest goal of $1,800 just to help with transportation. They remain hopeful that’s how the money will be spent but were not anticipating Monday’s news.

“That amount was initially just so we can get back and forth, because we weren’t anticipating that discussion,” Shelman said.

Despite the heartbreaking prognosis, Shelman is trying to balance hope with reality.

“We’re hoping and praying he somehow makes it out of this, but we also need to be realistic and be prepared,” she said.

Those wishing to donate can contribute through the GoFundMe campaign or directly through Mountain America Credit Union or Venmo at @Marci-Shelman.