Brit student Rhea Hourigan, 19, dies from cardiac arrest in the shower after day out in Paris as family beg for answers
A YOUNG university student tragically died from an unexplained cardiac arrest while visiting her aunt in Paris for the Easter holidays.
Rhea Hourigan, 19, was taking a shower when her aunt heard a bang and found her unconscious in the bathroom.
Photos show a beaming Rhea in front of Paris landmarks such as the Arc de Triomphe only hours before she would die.
The tragic incident took place after a day full of exploring the city with electric bikes.
Polly Townhill, a friend of the family, told the Mirror: “She’d been there [the shower] 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.”
Paramedics were unable to save the young student, who wasn’t known to suffer any cardiac conditions.
Rhea remains in Paris as an autopsy will take place, then her body will go home to Shirley in the West Midlands.
The family is struggling as they need an interpreter, which cost £90 per page and would not explain her autopsy once conducted.
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. They are desperate to bring her home.”
Rhea worked at her local Nando’s and was in her first year of university at Durham, where family said “she was making so many friends”.
Grieving mum Jo posted to Facebook: “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.”
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help the family with funeral costs and the red tape they’re facing in France.
Organiser Dawn Buchanan posted on it: “It is with a heavy heart I am setting up this fundraiser for a beautiful young lady Rhea Hourigan who was tragically taken from this world on Saturday 29th April leaving her doting parents Jo and Dom, brother Joel and grandparents, aunts, uncles and friends totally and utterly devastated.
“I totally understand times are tough for everyone at the moment but anything at all you may be able to spare to help this very special family in their time of need would be so much appreciated.”