A couple’s Fijian honeymoon ends in tragedy
CHASE CLARKE WAS DEVASTATED WHEN HIS WIFE KELLY DIED OF PNEUMONIA IN FIJI
For Chase and Kelly Clarke, it was meant to be the next chapter of their fairytale.
However, just six months after their dream wedding, Chase was shattered following his wife’s shock death on their Fijian honeymoon – a mere two days after she complained of stomach pains.
Kelly, 24, was initially thought to have contracted typhoid, but her heartbroken family later revealed that she had contracted bilateral pneumonia.
The young couple were holidaying at a resort in Sigatoka, ahead of a friend’s wedding, when Kelly – a children’s nurse at Sydney’s Westmead Hospital – mentioned she had pain in her stomach.
Although she initially shrugged it off as a stomach bug, within hours she was rushed to Lautoka Hospital and two days later, on Friday, October 6, she was pronounced dead – with tests revealing she had contracted the fungal infection, which had affected both her lungs.
Kelly’s brother Murray Shaw said she went into cardiac arrest five times within an hour and died before she could be medically evacuated.
‘Family and friends. Kelly has passed away. She went into cardiac arrest 5 times in the last hour and the medivac team didn’t make it in time,’ he wrote in a tragic Facebook post.
‘We are so shocked. You beautiful girl and amazing sister you will be deeply missed.’
Kelly’s sister Tam Brown set up a Gofundme page after the family was told it could cost $61,000 to bring her body home. At the time of writing, the page had raised over $53,000.
Speaking to The Daily Telegraph, Chase revealed that as well as the deadly infection, there were also four additional ‘minor’ causes highlighted.
‘I don’t know what to say. I’m completely devastated. It’s come as a complete shock. When we’re stronger, we will reveal the complete causes of death, but severe bilateral pneumonia is the main one.
‘Kelly is a wonderful kind soul. The last thing you expect on your honeymoon is to lose your wife – she had her whole life ahead of her.’
Describing Kelly’s last moments and the heartbreaking decision to advise medical staff to stop resuscitating his wife, Chase says: ‘I said, “Stop,” and pushed everyone away and me and her mother just held her.’
However, the horrific ordeal didn’t end there. The newly widowed 28-year-old revealed he later had to formally identify his wife’s body as she lay in a hospital shipping container shared by four dead people.
“It was disgusting. They put her body in a refrigerated shipping container and I pulled the sheet off her head and saw her lying there with other bodies on shelves,” he sobbed.
“That’s not something I ever envisaged doing, that image is now in my mind.
“I blame myself, the guilt is heavy, no-one else. Had we not gone to Fiji on our honeymoon, she might still be alive today – I will always wonder.”
According to the Telegraph, experts suspect Kelly would most likely have been treated with steroids after contracting the chronic immune disorder lupus earlier this year, thus possibly damaging her immune system further and increasing the risk of infection.
Friends and family have flooded social media with tributes, with one colleague describing Kelly as ‘an amazing woman, a brilliant nurse and such a kind and gentle soul’.