Baby girl dies in sleep of heart attack; Sharjah family shattered

An Indian family living in Sharjah went to sleep happy and peaceful. The next morning their lives were shattered.

Merlin, a one-and-a-half year old baby girl, died during the night of cardiac arrest.

The incident took place July 10 and the family, hailing from Kerala in South India, live near National Paint’s  in Sharjah.

“The family is shattered by the death. She was hale and hearty and we did not notice any signs of sickness.

“She was motionless in the morning and we rushed her to the hospital, where the girl was declared dead,” a close family friend told this website.

The Sharjah Police forensic report also confirmed that the baby died of cardiac arrest.

Anil Babu, the father of the deceased baby, works for a trading company in Sharjah and he also has a son who is 5.

The family hailing from Adoor, in Kerala, and are repatriating the child’s body.

“She was quite a charming girl and the entire neighbourhood is shattered by her death,” added another family friend.
“I have handed several hundred cases from the Indian community in the UAE. She died of cardiac arrest according to the forensic report.

This is the first time that I have dealt with a one-and- a-half year old dying of heart attack,” said Ashraf, an Indian social worker who helps expatriate families repatriate the deceased.

Heart for children

Recently, a group of Indian philanthropists in the UAE have come together to finance surgeries for more than 100 poor children suffering from heart ailments.

'Suhrudaya' - a child care heart programme, run by the Calicut-based non-profit charity trust, Helping Hands – has already helped 90 new born babies suffering from congenital heart disease.

According to Dr Sajan Koshi, cardiac surgeon from India, eight out of 1,000 new born babies suffer from this kind of heart disease, which causes them to be born premature too.

The group has treated children not only from India, but also countries like Oman and Africa.

“Every year there 100,000 new cases reported from India. In the South Indian state of Kerala alone about 4,000 children are born with the heart condition. Many of them will die in a short period if corrective surgery is not conducted early,” he said.

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