In the wake of absolute tragedy, the child's Nigerian mother still faces deportation.

An Irish-born child, whose mother fought their deportation order because of his severe form of sickle cell disease, has died aged nine-years-old.

The boy was brought to hospital on Sunday night, but died earlier this week due to complications from his illness. His funeral and burial mass were held today.

According to TheJournal.ie, the boy's mother now risks being deported from Ireland.

The mother-and-son duo fought initial orders made in 2011 to deport them in the High Court. In March this year, the Supreme Court dismissed their appeal to the Minister to reconsider the mother's deportation order.

Nine year old Irish born boy with severe sickle cell disease has died. His Nigerian mother opposed his deportation on medical grounds but last March lost their Supreme Court appeal. The court said a fresh app to revoke deportation based on an ECHR judgment could be brought.

— Mary Carolan (@MaryCarolanIT) July 13, 2018

According to The Journal, an affidavit from the distraught mother was read out to the court, which stated that she had been so desperate in order to fund his treatment that she had resorted to prostitution.

“What would happen to (my son) if we were to be deported?” it read.

A new application has been made to the Minister for Justice to allow her to remain in Ireland on humanitarian grounds. 

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The Irish Examiner noted that even if the Minister for Justice considered he was not obliged under the Constitution to permit the mother and child to remain, he can permit they remain on "general humanitarian grounds".

"There is a difference between what a decision maker must do, and what such a person may do," Mr Justice O'Donnell told the court in March. "Humanitarian considerations are not the sole preserve of the courts, national or supranational."

The woman's solicitor, Brian Burns, told TheJournal.ie that the mother is still at risk of deportation but is just “absolutely devastated” by her son’s death.

A doctor explained in 2014 that had the family been forced to leave the country, the young boy definitely would not have survived.

He had been cared for at Temple Street Hospital during his short life.

"It's very sad this boy and his mother had to endure so many years of uncertainty in the system" Burns added.