5-year-old Henryville girl dies after battle with rare genetic disease

HENRYVILLE, Ind. (WDRB) -- After years of battling a genetic disease, a young girl who won hearts on social media has died.

Karson Friedmeyer’s mother posted the news about her daughter on Facebook Friday morning.

User: Casey To: link

The Henryville, Indiana, girl turned 5 in July. Karson was born with an extra 18th chromosome. It's a condition called Trisomy 18, or Edwards Syndrome that happens about once out of every 6,000 births.

Just under 10 percent of kids with this condition live to be a year old, but her family says she was a fighter.

Thousands followed Karson's journey through surgeries and struggles on the "Keeping Up With Karson" Facebook page.

In 2014, Duck Dynasty stars visited her in the hospital before her open heart surgery.

In January of this year, she was pictured with hundreds of red hats as part of the Little Hats Big Hearts movement for the American Heart Association.