UK teen dies days after heart stopped while taking a bath
A United Kingdom teen whose mother found her unconscious while taking a bath at her home died from a brain injury and a rare complication of pneumonia, a coroner has found.
Amber Rummels, 18, was discovered underwater in a tub as the faucets continued to flow on Dec. 1 as she bathed in her home in Cardiff, Wales. Her mother, Anita Lewis, found the teen and yanked her out of the bath before giving her CPR, BBC News reports.
Paramedics were able to revive Rummels, getting her heart started again, but she died four days later at a hospital. A coroner recently said during an inquest that she died from hypoxic brain injury and a complication of pneumonia from her near-drowning due to sudden arrhythmic death syndrome, or SADS.
The coroner also found it was “possible but unlikely” that an electric facial exfoliator found in the bathtub with Amber could have caused an electric shock that led to her arrhythmia.
Lewis said in a statement to the inquest that she awoke that evening to find that the family’s home had lost electricity, The Mirror reports.
“Water was coming through the light fitting in the hallway,” Lewis said. “I could then hear a dripping sound of water coming from the bathroom.”
Lewis managed to get into the locked bathroom with a pen, she said.
A utility worker later visited the home and found no issues with its electric system, The Mirror reports.
Rummels’ boss at a restaurant where she worked said the hospitality major at Cardiff and Vale College appeared to be her “happy normal self” prior to her sudden death.
Rummels’ younger sister and brother will now have their hearts examined by the doctors, The Mirror reports.
