A Northern California couple was mourning the death of their 11-year-old daughter after a mysterious allergic reaction turned fatal during a family Thanksgiving trip to Hawaii.
Paige Warner of Roseville had always had food allergies and was sensitive to environmental conditions, her mother Karin Carpenter said. Typically, Carpenter said she was able to get her daughter’s responses under control.
In Honolulu, Paige was “lit up,” she was so excited to be in Hawaii.
But about 10 to 15 minutes after swimming in a pool along with her younger sister Violet and a friend, Paige left the water to complain that her nose was burning. Then her throat started to swell up.
“This time, I just knew that something was wrong,” Carpenter told KTLA sister station KTXL in Sacramento.
A call to 911 was made.
“She looked at me and said, ‘I’m dying. I know I’m going to die because I can see the look on your face,’” Paige’s mother recalled.
It’s not clear what caused the allergic reaction, Carpenter told KTXL.
According to a GoFundMe fundraising page that has brought in more than $28,000 for the family, Paige’s lungs closed up and her heart stopped. She received CPR for about an hour before her heart started again.
Paige was hospitalized and was in a coma but later died, KTXL reported.
On the GoFundMe page, Paige’s teachers and friends of the family remembered her, especially for her drawings.
In a post on Dec. 8, Carpenter thanked those who had donated for their generosity, messages and prayers.
“This has devastated and shocked my family in the deepest way imaginable, but we are reminded of the beautiful and giving hearts of our friends, both close to us and friends who we have never met,” she wrote.
While the family grieves for Paige, Violet has helped her parents heal, insisting that Christmas decorations go up.
“She loves Christmas,” Violet said of her sister.
A funeral for Paige was expected in January, Carpenter said.
Correction: The spelling of Karin Carpenter’s last name is given incorrectly in the embedded video above. The correct spelling is within the text of this post.