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01/01/2004: ""Freak head injury kills miracle girl.""
A 'MIRACLE baby' who became the youngest-ever person to have a heart valve transplant has died in a freak accident at the age of 11.
Katie Watson collapsed in front of her father and brother at a swimming pool. She was spinning around in the car park, made herself dizzy and fell, banging her head. The blow would have been a minor injury to most children, but it was enough to stop her heart.
She was just four weeks old when she survived a pioneering operation in which surgeons repaired two holes in her heart and replaced a valve. Katie's mother Jane, 39, from Newcastle, said: 'It seems so cruel for her to die in a stupid accident like this. Katie would have been 12 on Boxing Day. The hardest thing I have ever done was to say goodbye to her at the hospital.' Katie's parents split in August and she lived with her father Tony, 40, in Dunbar, East Lothian. - taken from 'Metro',18/12/03
Reading of a child's death, one is sometimes incredulous as to the illogical things parents say post-accident/murder/whatever. These utterances solve nothing, can hinder acceptance and to correctly-calibrated ears, have alternate, stupid, meanings.
For example:
'It seems so cruel to die in a stupid accident like this.': “if she'd been killed in something serious like a motorway pile-up, it would have been easier to accept”.
Death is eternally cruel and that wasn't a stupid accident. (Those involve banana skins and grand pianos). Serious or stupid, it's a moot point. The grass is always greener in other cemeteries.
'Katie would have been 12 on boxing day': “If she'd died on Boxing Day, she'd have had a long and fulfilling life.”
Dead a week-or-so before a birthday: she wasn't even 12! Dead on her birthday: she was only 12! What difference does it make? Were the presents she missed that great? Did birthdays assuage maternal guilt over heart-defects?
If the child dies before the parent, age is irrelevant. What's more, death is always inconvenient and untimely. Why torture oneself about it?
I don't see anything sad or cruel here. She was spinning around because she was could do, because she enjoyed it. People don't have operations to go to school or to get a job. We get mended so we can have fun. That's the point.
The kid died being a kid. Seems OK to me.
