Teen dies after first kiss from rare heart condition
18-year-old Jemma Benjamin died minutes after her boyfriend, 21-year-old Daniel Ross, kissed her for the first time, an inquest in Britain has heard.
Ross kissed Benjamin at his student flat after a night out together. A few minutes later, she collapsed onto the couch and died in front of him.
Ross, who rang 999 and was given CPR instructions on the phone, tried to save her before paramedics arrived on the scene, but nothing could have been done for her, the inquest was told.
The inquest also heard that Benjamin, who was a fit long-distance swimmer and hockey player, died from the rare cardiac condition SADS - Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome.
According to what Ross told the police, the pair had been friends for three months, but that was the first time they had kissed.
“We were going to go to a bar for some food and went back to my house for a credit card which I had forgotten,” Ross said.
“We were talking and ended up kissing in the hallway by the front door. We went into the kitchen and then the living room and Jemma sat down on the sofa.”
The student explained that Benjamin’s eyelids “began to droop” and her mouth started to froth before she collapsed.
A post-mortem examination couldn’t find any medical reason for her death in April 2009. The hearing was told that she had no history of cardiac problems.
Her mother said Jemma was 'a picture of health one minute and taken away from me the next'.
