A young mum-of-three whose heart stopped when she collapsed at a Turkish airport has been declared “clinically dead”, her family has said.
Melissa Kinsella, who was known to her loved ones as Missy, was on her way home from a family holiday with her husband and children when she suffered a seizure and stopped breathing.
Her friend set up a GoFundMe to help pay the Turkish hospital fees, which totalled £1,800 a day for her care, and for an air ambulance to get her home.
It raised more than £50,000 and Ms Kinsella, 30, from Moreton, Merseyside, was flown back to the UK on 24 May.
But her devastated parents have now said nothing else can be done.
Michelle Heathcote, her mother, wrote on Facebook: “Our hearts are broken forever.
“After 12 days of fighting for our beautiful daughter’s life, test[s] prove she is clinically dead. We have no words to express how we feel but thank everyone who helped us in any way to bring her home.”
Ms Heathcote later said her daughter was a donor, so was in surgery to donate her organs.
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‘You were one in a million’
Ms Kinsella’s friend Rebecca Dath, who set up the fundraiser, also posted a tribute on social media.
“I can’t believe I’m never going to hear your voice again (other than voice notes that I’ll cherish forever),” she wrote.
“I’m never going to get one of those phone calls that I’ve prayed for the past 12 days. I am absolutely heartbroken for your family, your girls, your friends.
“I’m going to miss that dirty laugh, the disgusting stories with too much information.
“The absolute anger at any small inconvenience and the best friend that would always encourage me to fly off the handle and you’d be there to back me up.
“I’ll never have a best friend like you again because you were one in a million. I love you.”
