A teen described as 'happy and bright' by family and friends has died after collapsing in the shower while on holiday. Rhea Hourigan, 19, had been visiting her aunt in Paris at the end of April when she is believed to have suffered a cardiac arrest.
The first-year Durham University Student had spent the day travelling through the French capital enjoying the sights on an electric bike. Later in the evening when getting ready for bed the teen from Shirley in England collapsed in the shower.
Despite desperate efforts from paramedics who rushed to the scene, she was tragically pronounced dead at 12.45am. Polly Townhill, best friend of Rhea's mother told the Mirror: " She'd got in the shower and she was getting ready to go to bed.
"She'd been there for quite a long time, so her Auntie knocked to say 'Is everything all right you coming out?' She answered her, Rhea said: 'Yeah, yeah, I'm on my way out.' Then she heard a bang..."
The cause of the cardiac arrest remains a mystery with no known history of heart failure in the family or pre-existing medical conditions. In another devastating blow for the family, they have been unable to see their daughter due to the autopsy taking place next week.
Polly continued: "She had full travel insurance but it hasn't covered what they need. There's so much red tape over there and they have to treat her death as mitigating circumstances. It would still be a tragedy without this, but her parents cannot see their child until the autopsy is done. They are desperate to bring her home.
"Those are the two main things I know and it means that they haven't been able to have an autopsy. Jo [mother] has just faced brick wall after brick wall."
The devastated family of the girl described her as 'their bright shining star', adding that she was well-loved and had plans for the future.
Writing on Facebook, her devastated mother Jo said: "She had so many plans, dreams and aspirations she was our bright shining star. She hadn’t even finished her first year of uni which she absolutely loved up in Durham and had made so many good friends.
"Our only comfort is that she was so happy and had had such a brilliant day seeing the sights of Paris, she wouldn’t have known what had happened and didn’t suffer."
Polly says she and Jo were pregnant together and have been friends for 30 years.
Speaking through tears she says there are no words to explain how devastated Polly's daughter, Rhea's best friend, is.
"We're all girlfriends, all the mums and we've all got children all the same age. One of our friend's daughters is the general manager of Nandos and all of the girls work there. So many people in such a small community are beyond devastated," she says.
Family friend Dawn Buchanan has set up a GoFundMe to help support the family and the financial pressures.
She wrote: "Their friends and family wanted to reach out and help as much as they can to ease the financial burden a little with any costs they will be incurring during this devasting time and the coming weeks and months."
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