Video of father singing "Blackbird" to dying son goes viral

LOMA LINDA, Calif. -- A video of a musician singing the Beatles' "Blackbird" to his son as he lay in a neonatal intensive care unit crib went viral Thursday, the day after the boy died and four days after his wife died in her sleep, CBS Los Angeles reports.

"Dear friends, family, and supporters; it is with an unbelievably heavy heart that I write this. My little fighter, Lennon James Picco went to sleep in his daddy's arms late last night," Chris Picco wrote in a in a message posted Wednesday on his wife's memorial fund page.

The video was posted to YouTube Wednesday and shows Picco playing a guitar as he sang to his son, who was indistinguishable among the mass of tubes, blankets and lights in his crib in the NICU of Loma Linda University Children's Hospital. According to the YouTube information, little Lennon was delivered by emergency C-section at 24 weeks Sunday when Ashley Picco unexpectedly died in her sleep.

By Friday morning, the YouTube video had been viewed more than 6 million times.

The video was apparently filmed the day before little Lennon died. Chris Picco wrote that during Ashley's pregnancy, Lennon would move when he heard music, so he asked if he could bring the guitar into the NICU so he could play for Lennon. Picco played for hours at a time during the last days of Lennon's life.

A memorial fund set up by Loma Linda University Church and Garden Pediatrics sought to raise $50,000 in memory of Ashley Picco, to help her husband with medical expenses. As of Friday morning, more than $110,000 has been raised.