Parents share heartbreak after kissing their daughter goodbye
A mum has opened up about having to make the heartbreaking decision to turn her daughter’s life support off following a crash.
Chloe Lee, her parents Geoff and Sommar, and her younger brother Declan were injured in a crash in the Western Australian Wheatbelt region on May 30.
The family was rushed to hospital after being cut from the vehicle.
Geoff came away from the accident with broken ankles, spinal injuries, and internal injuries while Somamar suffered a broken pelvis, wrist, and broken legs.
Chloe suffered head and spinal injuries and was put on life support at Perth Children’s Hospital.
According to a GoFundMe started for the family, Chloe’s life support was turned off days after the accident when the family was well enough “to kiss their baby girl goodbye”.
In an update on the fundraising site, Sommar wrote about the difficulty of the decision she and Geoff made.
“Where do I even begin, how do you go on when one of the [two] halves of your heart is gone?,” she wrote.
“When you are lying in your broken body unable to move to save your precious child.
“Being told that your beautiful, sassy, amazing 10-year-old is being kept alive by life support and no it’s not like on TV, a miracle is not going to save her.”
The decision was made even more difficult with the knowledge they had to tell their son, Declan, that his big sister “has to go to heaven”.
“Having to tell our son, that his other half, his best friend and sister, has to go to heaven. That the machines breathing for her and keeping her precious heart pumping, needs to be turned off, is the hardest thing we had to do,” she continued.
“Especially not being able to hold him in our arms, barely able to hold his hand.”
Sommar also thanked the “amazing doctors and nurses” who helped at the scene of the accident and in the hospital while the family underwent treatment.
“Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. There are no words to describe the place you will always have in our hearts.”
Sommar said the family is now “stuck in limbo” as they recover from their injuries and mourn Chloe.
The Lee family had recently moved to WA from Queensland for a “change of life”, with the fundraiser aiming to help them return to Caboolture in Queensland.
Geoff and Sommar also wish to return Chloe to Caboolture for a funeral with her friends and family.
The fundraiser has raised more than $64,000 in donations.
Image: GoFundMe