Photo of hugging twins goes viral

Editor's Note: Hawk Buchmeyer, one of the twins in the viral photo featured in this story, died from an extremely rare disorder a day after this story was posted online. See the full update here.

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FORT PIERCE, Fla. (CBS12) -- The twins in a Facebook photo captured the nation and even the world’s attention on social media.

It’s garnered 105,000 likes and close to 6 million shares.

Today CBS12 learns the story behind the picture.

The St. Lucie County newborns, who have brought so many to smile, turns out their real story may bring you to tears.

It began with a simple photo of tiny twins Hawk and Mason Buchmeyer in an embrace shared on social media.

Mason Buchmeyer hugs his brother, and smiles, capturing millions of hearts and “likes.”

His mother, a nurse from Fort Pierce, says it was actually Mason who needed calming down that night.

"He was actually getting really fussy,” Brandy Guettler said, “And the nurse said why don't you try laying him down next to Hawk. I said ‘Can you do that?’ So we laid him there and all of the sudden as soon as he felt Hawk, he reached his arm out and grabbed him and just started to smile. The two of them knew they were there for each other.”

She took a picture and Mason and his brother Hawk, on a ventilator, went viral.

“We posted the picture for people to see how they were doing since we were so far away at Shands in Gainesville,” Tommy Buchmeyer, Hawk and Mason's Father said, "Every day the numbers grow. 5.6 million people have seen it. 24,000 shares. 105,000 likes."

"We didn't expect it to take off the way it has. We have been contacted from Ireland, Scotland, Ukraine, United Kingdom, people from all over," Guettler said.

And except for the first few shares, most were just in love with the image, and had no idea the story behind the picture. Well, now you will.

That tiny twin, Hawk, who gave his brother comfort, he himself was fighting for his life.

"The whole ordeal is as bad as you can get," Tommy said, ”The doctors aren’t giving us false hope. We know it’s a long shot.”

Hawk is intubated now at Shands Hospital in Gainesville.

He was diagnosed with a rare and often fatal condition called CDH, or Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia.

According to the National Institutes of Health, CDH is a condition in which a hole in the diaphragm allows abdominal organs to move into the chest, which prevents the lungs from developing normally, resulting in lungs being under-developed.

It is a rare defect that occurs in less than .001% of newborns, or less than 1,600 cases a year.

Some cases are less severe and newborns can have surgery and live a normal life.

Hawk has yet to get off the ventilator. He suffered kidney failure among a slew of ailments.

His family keeps those back in St Lucie County updated via Facebook posts like this one: “Well this roller coaster we are on is headed back down, Hawks bilirubin levels are very high. We need to continue to pray that he keeps fighting and getting stronger so we can hopefully start to gradually take him off Ecmo. He's not strong enough yet to do it on is own. If we can just get his lungs to expand and start working a little more on their own we would be doing good. Just please keep these prayers coming!!!”

But the new parents say, while Mason misses his brother and they struggle to keep Hawk alive, they have received joy from the support and love given to them from the photo of the two twins.

They pray daily Hawk will make a full recovery.

His condition is not improving as rapidly as doctors would like, and a few times he almost died in the last 3 weeks.

"He has flat-lined twice. And 3 o’clock in the morning is very heart-wrenching when you have to snatch him up and get to the vehicle as fast as possible," Guettler said. “It’s so difficult because I’m his mom and I can’t hold him.”

If a picture is worth a thousand words, the one of Hawk and Mason is priceless.

But just understand behind that beautiful moment is the fear every parent with a sick child has.

That the moment will pass, and their son will not survive.

They are not asking for money or help.

The family wants people to be aware of CDH, and the lives of so many big and small, they touch and can even destroy.

You can follow the progress of Hawk Buchmeyer on Facebook.

Hawk's story took a tragic turn. He died Wednesday morning. RIP little fella.

"Our sweet little man was called home to be with Jesus," wrote the family on Facebook.