A man has suffocated after falling face-first on a beach in New Zealand while walking with his two-year-old daughter.
Andre Bradshaw, 25, suffered a medical episode while walking his daughter Skyla on Raumati Beach north of Wellington in June this year.
For months, Bradshaw’s family were left with only questions about how he died, until a coroner’s report released on Friday provided the family with much-needed answers.
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Coroner Mark Wilton ruled that Bradshaw’s cause of death was “asphyxia by sand”, after he suffered a medical episode and fell face down onto the beach.
A post-mortem examination found fragments of sand in his windpipe and lungs, according to the New Zealand Herald.
The coroner was reported as saying in his findings that Bradshaw had a medical history, including a seizure-like disorder and nerve condition, which may have contributed to his collapse.
With forensic pathologists saying they “were significant contributory conditions that reasonably explain his sudden collapse and subsequent asphyxiation”.
Three different viruses were also found in Bradshaw’s system.
“Andre passed away doing what he loved the most, and that was walking on the beach with Skyla,” Bradshaw’s partner Meya Cameron said in a fundraiser set up to assist with Skyla’s future.
“Skyla witnessed it. We are in complete shock,” she said.
“Skyla was everything to Andre and Skyla will always look up to her Dada.”
In another beach tragedy, a young man was buried alive on Queensland’s Bribie Island, after falling head-first into a hole which collapsed around him on Saturday afternoon. He died on Thursday, five days later, after family turned off life support.