An 11-year-old girl died in a "most desperately unfortunate accident" when a branch hidden in the mud pierced her heart while she was playing with friends on a summer's day in Cornwall.
Lilly Angel Rodgers, from Devon, had been playing a game of starfish and doing a "commando crawl" across the mud flats and sliding down a muddy bank when a concealed sharp branch or root punctured through her ribs.
An inquest into the death of the girl from Newton Abbot, held in Truro on Monday, September 21, heard how Lilly had been a fit, healthy and remarkably active young girl with a passion for the outdoors and pursuits such as surfing, climbing, camping and stand-up paddle boarding.
The hearing was told that Lilly had spent the night before her accident at a friend's house, staying up late, as children so often do.
The girl, who was born in Torbay, had been playing in the mud flats with her two friends, something they had done on many previous occasions. All three were well acquainted with the spot at Wacker Quay, Torpoint, reports Cornwall Live.
Wacker Quay forms part of the Tamar Valley landscape and offers free public access to the River Lynher.
The three children were around 50 metres from the shore, where a bank sloped down towards a channel in the River Lynher. The inquest heard how the mother of the other two children called them back into her line of sight while she and her partner prepared a barbecue.
The mother described how the children were rolling around in the mud and "crawling commando-style". After she called them back to keep them within sight, the three youngsters carried on playing, making starfish shapes before sliding headfirst down the muddy bank towards the channel.
At that moment Lilly stood up, clutched her chest and gasped before collapsing face down into the mud.
Screams from the other children alerted the adults that something was seriously wrong, and a desperate rescue attempt followed.
The inquest heard how the other children's mother and her partner tried to reach Lilly before another adult arrived and the emergency services were contacted. A branch had severed a pulmonary artery, causing her heart to stop.
Paramedics attended, but meaningful CPR could only be performed after the unconscious girl was airlifted from the mud flats by the coastguard search and rescue helicopter. The operation took 40 minutes to bring Lilly back to dry land.
She was subsequently transferred to Derriford Hospital in Plymouth, where she was pronounced dead.
James Garvican, consultant pathologist at the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro, later conducted a post-mortem examination on Lilly.
He told the inquest he was surprised to find a wound near the top of Lilly's ribcage. He said the wound, when explored in detail, was 7cm deep inside Lilly's chest.
Dr Garvican recorded the medical cause of death as "penetrating chest trauma". He told the inquest it was most probably a branch or sharp root concealed beneath the surface of the mud in the bank that caused the fatal wound.
He added: "It's extremely bad luck. Half an inch to the right and it would just have glanced off her ribcage and left a bruise and a scratch. Half an inch to the left and it may still have gone in but it would not have damaged vital organs. This was not a survivable injury."
Dr Garvican stated that surviving such a wound would have required it to be suffered while standing directly in front of a surgeon and anaesthetist with a hospital theatre fully prepared and ready to perform an emergency operation.
He said Lilly had most likely lost consciousness immediately and would not have been aware of any rescue efforts or CPR being administered.
Devon and Cornwall Police confirmed there were no suspicious circumstances or third party involvement in Lilly's death. The force stated that the area of Wacker Quay where the incident occurred is owned by the Ministry of Defence but leased to the Tamar Community Trust, and no incident of this nature had ever previously occurred in 40 years.
Girl, 11, Died After Hidden Branch Pierced Heart at Cornwall Beauty Spot