Girl, 4, asks one heartbreaking question after mum collapsed at airport and died
The little daughter of a young mum who died suddenly while on holiday has been asking a heart-wrenching question ever since her death.
Melissa Kinsella, 30, collapsed while waiting in Antalya Airport, Turkey to fly home in May of this year. She had suffered a massive seizure and cardiac arrest. The mum-of-three was rushed to a Turkish hospital and put in a coma. A total of £50,000 was then raised to bring Melissa back home - but she was pronounced dead just hours after landing back in Merseyside.
Melissa's mum Michelle Heathcote, 51, has since spoken of the devastation the loss has caused her family. She said: "My four-year-old granddaughter keeps asking ‘why can’t heaven just give her medicine and send her back?’ It was Melissa’s birthday last week and we took balloons and flowers to a memorial bench. It really upset her older daughters. I think it hit them that their mummy won’t be coming back."
Melissa 'loved' being a mum
Melissa with her partner Jay SmithMichelle said the family has endured a battle to find out how the previously healthy mum died so suddenly. Two months after Melissa's death her cousin Nicole Waters received test results which confirmed she has Long QT Syndrome - a genetic heart condition. Tests on Melissa, from Moreton in Wirral, later showed she had the same condition, with Michelle revealing Nicole's test results - which took seven months to process - might well have saved her daughter's life.
Michelle said: "I couldn’t believe it had taken seven months for Nicole’s test results to be processed. NHS guidelines advise they ought to take around three months. If they had come back during the recommended time frame, Melissa would have been tested and either prescribed medication or fitted with a pacemaker. She could have been saved. Instead, Melissa has lost her life at such a young age, she had so much to look forward to. We have lost our only child, Jay has lost his partner, and most tragically of all, three little girls are left without a mummy."
Brit in coma in Turkey after 3 cardiac arrests as family face £80k medical bill
Melissa was a healthy young mum to Chloe, nine, Beau, four, and two-year-old Romi when she and her partner, Jay, booked a holiday to Turkey in May this year. Michelle said: "Melissa was my only child, and we were incredibly close. She had a heart of gold, she was always happy to help people out. She was bubbly and chatty too.
"She worked in hair and beauty, but her priority was always her children. She loved being a mum. Melissa was fit and healthy, but she’d had two seizures in the months before her death. She had tests and was reassured there was nothing wrong, but of course the doctors were not looking for a heart defect at that stage.”
She was just 30 when she died in May this year and was described by her family as a 'beautiful soul'
Melissa died after suffering a cardiac arrestDuring her holiday, Melissa texted Michelle to complain of feeling unwell. Michelle added: "I thought maybe she had sunstroke and I was advising her to drink plenty of water. It didn’t seem anything serious. She actually said to me: ‘I feel like I’m dying’ but I thought it was just a figure of speech." Melissa was planning to visit her GP when she arrived home but did not make it that far.
"She collapsed at the airport and was put in a coma in a Turkish hospital. Michelle and her husband, Steven, rushed to their daughter’s bedside, and were told she had swelling on her brain. We were not allowed to see Melissa until we’d paid £2,000. It felt so cruel. We were told there was a £2,000 daily fee. We stayed by her bedside, playing her favourite songs and little messages from her daughters, just in case she could hear us.”
A fundraising campaign raised £50,000 in a matter of days to fly Melissa home. But within four hours of arriving at Arrowe Park Hospital Wirral she was pronounced dead, aged just 30. Michelle said: “We were on a real high, bringing her home, believing she might improve. So it was devastating to learn she was brain dead. We had no idea why she’d died, or what had triggered her heart attack. It was horrific for us. Before Melissa died, I promised her I would be there for her children."
After Nicole, 27, contacted Michelle to say she was being tested for a genetic heart defect, Michelle ensured tests were also done on Melissa after her death. The tests showed she too had the condition - and now her young daughters are also undergoing tests. Michelle now wants to raise awareness of the "killer condition" that claimed the life of her daughter and stressed the importance of processing test results as quickly as possible. She said: "Losing Melissa has absolutely destroyed us and now I just want to make people aware of this horrible condition. I also want to stress the importance of processing test results as quickly as possible. It literally is a matter of life and death."
A spokesperson for Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital said: “We are saddened by the death of Melissa and would like to extend our deepest condolences to her family and loved ones. Whilst we cannot comment in detail because of our duty to uphold patient confidentiality, it is important to note that confirming the result of a non-urgent genetic test is a complex analytical process.
"In some situations, it can take significantly longer than three months to validate a genetic variant, due to the requirement for additional complex tests, analysis, further checks and scientific verification through Northwest Genomics Laboratory Hub."
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