By Marjory Inglis

A DUNDEE family is grieving the loss of a 15-year-old girl who died during a severe asthma attack.

Kim Smith’s heart stopped when oxygen failed to get to her lungs, despite sustained efforts to resuscitate her by her ex-serviceman stepfather Chaz, a trained combat medic.

Mother Debbie is trying to cope with the loss of a second child. Her daughter Tammy was born prematurely in 1990 and survived only 16 weeks.

Kim would have celebrated her 16th birthday in September.

Kim, a former pupil of Baldragon Academy, moved to Dundee College’s Kingsway campus last January. She was due to collect a certificate to mark completion of a preparation for work course on June 17, but was admitted to Ninewells Hospital two days earlier.

Debbie said her daughter had endured severe asthma and eczema all her life and was in and out of hospital on a regular basis as medical teams battled to stabilise her condition.

The teenager had hopes of becoming a nurse in the children’s ward at Ninewells, where she was familiar with the equipment due to her frequent admissions.

Kim was at home on Wednesday when she again suffered an asthma attack. Chaz tried to revive her while waiting for an ambulance to arrive at the family’s Balgowan Avenue home.

“When the paramedics got here I had her in the recovery position and had started trying to resuscitate her,” said Chaz. “They told me to keep going.”

He said the paramedics worked on Kim in the house for about half an hour, and while she didn’t come round, they did record a pulse and the decision was taken to transfer her to Ninewells.

“We thought she would be stable enough to move,” said Chaz.

Debbie accompanied her dying daughter to hospital, holding her hand, showering her with kisses and willing her to stay alive.

“I just thought she would come around,” said Debbie. “She had done that before.”

But the grieving mother said she now believed her daughter’s body could finally take no more.

“She was on a lot of medication for her asthma,” said Debbie. “I just feel her body couldn’t take any more of the battering.”

Chaz praised the efforts of staff at Ninewells.

“The ambulance men carried on giving CPR all the way to the hospital and then the doctors took over.

“They worked on her for a good three-quarters of an hour, giving her injections of pure adrenaline to try to start the heart. They tried everything they could and did a good job, but the longer the heart was not pumping, the stronger the risk there would have been brain damage even if she had survived.”

Kim joined the army cadets, earning a commemorative medal as one of the best turned-out recruits at an event in Glamis Castle to mark the Queen’s golden jubilee in 2002. However, her medical problems cut short her cadet career as she was unable to join in many of the physical exercises.

Kim is survived by Debbie, Chaz and siblings Natasha, Ronnie, Alex and Mark, as well as nephew Reece and niece Mystialeigh.