Imogen Lennon: 'Bright and sassy' 5-year-old girl tragically dies after choking on her 'favorite' snack
NEW SOUTH WALES, AUSTRALIA: A five-year-old girl died as a result of choking, leaving her family "shattered." Imogen Lennon from Canowindra in New South Wales, Australia began choking on her "favorite" snack in the backseat of her mother's car.
On Monday, January 16, Samantha Lennon picked up her daughter from swimming lessons and offered her a deli frankfurt to munch on as they traveled back home. Imogen was talking to her mother in the backseat, when all of a sudden, she started choking. After the ambulance failed to show up, Samantha drove her to the nearest hospital where Imogen later died, as per Daily Mail.
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"Despite Sam's heroic efforts, ringing an ambulance, the help of a passerby and eventually driving Imogen to the hospital herself (the ambulance was too far away to make it in time) beautiful Imogen passed away later at the hospital," a family friend Tamara Harrison wrote on GoFundMe. "To make sense of such a tragic loss in such a way is inconceivable, there are no words that could accurately describe how shattered Imogen's family are. It is Impossible to Imagine life without Imogen," she added.
Harrison said deli frankfurts were one of Imogen's "favorite" snacks after swimming lessons. The five-year-old, who was the youngest child, is survived by her parents Samantha and William, her older brothers Hayden and Bailey, her sister Tamzin, as well as a sizable extended family. The fundraiser, which will assist her family in paying for funeral expenses, has raised $27,189 over its $25,000 target.
According to Harrison, the Lennons are "true Aussie battlers" who are constantly lending a helping hand to people in need. "They would give the shirts off their backs, without a second thought should someone be in need," she wrote. "The burden of trying to find the money to pay for Imogen's final resting place and a fitting celebration of her short life is a burden that I would like to remove for this family, while they deal with such an unthinkable tragedy."
Imogen, who has been described as "bright, determined, loving and sassy", will be bid farewell to on Saturday, January 28, at a nearby church. Mourners are invited to attend the service dressed in "bright colors" in her honor.