Emma Aronson, a star athlete from Missouri, died in a swimming pool Friday while racing her friends.
New York Daily News reports that Aronson, an incoming senior at Lee’s Summit High School, was playfully racing with her friends when her heart suddenly stopped.
“She was racing in the pool against the boys and of course, she wanted to beat them. And most of the time she did,” Laura Aronson, Emma’s grief-stricken mother, told the reporters.
“She got to the edge and said, in a very small voice, ‘I’m so tired,’ and then that was it,” she recalled. “Her best friends tried to save her life, but there was nothing they could do. It was nobody’s fault.”
Emma reportedly had a heart condition that she underwent surgery for when she was only four years old, KMBC reports . For some reason, when she was racing in the pool, she suffered from cardiac arrest. The authorities discovered Emma unconscious shortly before 10 p.m. on Friday night, after her friends called 911. Although they were quickly able to get Emma out of the water and perform CPR, her heart was simply not strong enough and stopped beating.
Emma’s family and friends are mourning the young athlete who died far too soon.
“She was the most beautiful daughter anybody could ever ask for,” her mother told KCTV 5 News . “Every second of every day she made people smile. She was encouraging.
Laura also took to Facebook to post a message in remembrance of her daughter.
“Emma, I miss you. I love you and my heart aches like I never knew it could,” the message read. “I’m sick without you my girl. I’ll never be the same. I just don’t know how much of this pain I can take.”
“She was always one to put people first,” Emma’s friend Amanda Hubbard. “She wanted everyone just to be OK and she didn’t care if she was OK.”
“I’m glad she is in heaven now,” Hubbard added. “I know she is in heaven and that she is not suffering anymore.”
The Jackson County Medical Examiner’s Office will be performing an autopsy on Emma. Although she is no longer here, she will live on through others as her organs will be transplanted to at least 50 people, Fox 4 Kansas City reports .
Emma’s friends set up a GoFundMe page to help the family with the medical costs and funeral expenses. So far, they have raised $8,125 for the cause.
[Photo via GoFundMe]
