Mum's heartbreak after finding her 10-year-old daughter dead on the sofa

A heartbroken mum has shared her devastating experience of finding her 10-year-old daughter dead on the sofa.

Shaylisha Morrison was discovered unresponsive at their family home last month. Debbie, her mother, thought her daughter was merely sleeping when her frantic husband urged her to 'get an ambulance' as Shaylisha was 'not breathing'.

The day before Shaylisha's tragic death on May 30, Debbie had advised her to 'get some sleep' after she fell ill and started vomiting. In the days following Shaylisha's sudden death, her twin sister Chardonnay was also urgently taken to hospital.

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Both girls have been dealing with bowel issues since birth, and Debbie suspects these problems may be connected to Shaylisha's untimely death.

"It was a huge shock," Debbie, from Ainsworth, told the M.E.N. "On the Tuesday, she was in school. She came home and we went shopping.

"She was running around B&M and playing hide and seek with her brother. We got home and she was chasing her brother round the house and playing with her sister."

"On Wednesday, out of the blue she started being sick and had the runs. On the Thursday, she was gone." The evening before her death, Debbie says Shaylisha was in 'really bad pain' and experiencing aches to her back and stomach.

Shaylisha struggled to sleep that night and was continuing to vomit the next day. Her concerned parents lay her down on the sofa and urged her to 'get some sleep'.

Shaylisha drifted off but when her father, Eddie, went to check on her later that evening, he found her unresponsive on the couch.

"I couldn't believe it," said Debbie. "I thought she was playing games. My husband shouted 'get an ambulance, she's not breathing'.

"I picked her up and she just flopped. That's when I knew."

Ms Morrison rushed outside to ask for help and two neighbours attempted to perform CPR on Shaylisha. Paramedics then attended the address, but were unable to save Shaylisha.

"It still doesn't feel real, I still don't believe that she's gone," said Debbie. "It's something I never in my life thought would happen."

Shaylisha and her twin sister were born prematurely and both suffered bowel problems following their birth, said Debbie. The sisters would often experience stomach ache and constipation, which Debbie fears may be linked to her daughter's death.

She says an initial post-mortem examination was unable to find a cause for Shaylisha's death. Debbie is now desperately seeking answers, with an inquest death due to open at Rochdale Coroners' Court on Friday (June 21).

As Debbie and her family attempted to come to terms with their loss, they were dealt a further blow when Chardonnay was admitted to hospital on June 3 - four days after Shaylisha's death. She has remained there ever since and is in a stable condition receiving treatment.

"I've been at the hospital 24 hours a day," Debbie added. "I've not had time to grieve properly. "It's a worry that it could happen to her. They both suffered with the same thing.

"It's a lot of anxiety and stress. I can't sleep properly, it's like I'm in a dream I can't get out of." Paying tribute to her daughter, Debbie described Shaylisha as a 'happy little girl'.

"She was always smiling and wanting to help others," she added. "She was a lovely bubbly child. Her and her twin sister were inseparable, they did everything together."

Shaylisha's loved ones have since set up a fundraiser to help cover the cost of her funeral. "We're trying to give her the send off that she deserves," said Debbie. "She always dreamed of being Elsa from Frozen so we wanted to get her white horses and a white carriage."

"I never thought I would have to plan a funeral for my own child. I would understand if we had a diagnosis and she was terminally ill. "We would have had time to come to terms with it but when all of a sudden she is gone, it's hard to even process that.""