A family has been left devastated after their two-year-old daughter died suddenly while playing in the garden. Grace Agnes Kenyon, from Winchburgh, Scotland, was days away from her second birthday when she tragically passed away last Saturday afternoon.
The toddler had been giggling and racing around with her older sister Charlotte, 7, before she began gagging and lost consciousness. Her parents fought to resuscitate her, but Grace could not be saved. Mum Carly, 31, described how a happy afternoon in the sunshine turned into their worst nightmare in an instant.
“It was just a regular day and Grace was enjoying being out in the garden after she woke up from her nap. She was chatting away, laughing, trying to copy her dad and sister doing gymnastics,” Carly said. “I'll never be able to get that image out of my head now that I have to live with how quickly it all changed.”
Grace had experienced difficulties with swallowing since birth and lived with a feeding tube. Medics suspected she had a rare condition called Glossopharyngeal Palsy, but she was awaiting a formal diagnosis. When she began to gag, her family initially thought it was a brief reflex they had seen before. When her condition failed to improve, her father Nick dialled 999, but Grace was gone in seconds.
“It wasn't clear what was happening but then she started making this awful noise. I was hitting her back as she sat on my knee and then she began struggling to breathe,” Carly added. “We began doing CPR immediately, but I could just see she was already gone. Myself and Nick tried to help her for ten minutes before paramedics arrived. Poor Charlotte watched this all unfold in front of her. It was just horrific.”
The cause of Grace's death is yet to be established, with a post-mortem examination scheduled for May 16. Her loved ones have been advised that no visible obstruction was found in her airway, and that the examination may not yield a definitive answer. A GoFundMe page has been set up by friends and the local community to support the family.
