Teen's heart stops during visit to Haunted House
Teenager Christian Faith Benge, who had a heart condition, died last Friday after collapsing in a haunted house.
The Ohio girl was with a group of about 100 family members and friends. They attended the Halloween attractions at Land of Illusion Haunted Scream Park in Madison Township. According to family members, her heart stopped while she was walking through one of the haunted houses.
“She got halfway through and just collapsed,” the teen's grandmother Betty Benge told the Journal-News. “She was almost through it.”
Christian was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
Family members said that she was born with congenital diaphragmatic hernia, a condition that prevents the lungs from developing normally. She had only one functioning lung, which caused the strain on her heart. According to doctors, part of her heart was enlarged to four times its normal size.
Photo: Facebook
“They said she was like a time bomb,” Betty Benge said.
Medical examiners will conduct an autopsy to determine her exact cause of death but claim it may be possible she was scared to death.
"Is this something that occurred because she had a heightened sense of fear? Or is this something that she could have been walking down the street and this occurred? We may never know that, but there's really no way to medically pinpoint that," Doyle Burke, Warren County chief investigator, told WCPO News.
Christian's family said they will remember her as the young woman with strong faith.
"I did CPR until the paramedics arrived, and then I just trusted God. He has an ultimate plan. It was just time," Christian's mother, Jean Benge, told WCPO News.
Sources: Huffington Post, WCPO News
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