A 21-year-old British holidaymaker collapsed and died without warning on a family trip to Turkey, leaving his devastated parents still fighting for answers eight months on.
Branigan Smith, described by loved ones as 'obsessed with travel', had been enjoying a 'lovely' break to celebrate his father's 50th birthday when tragedy struck. The young man, from Radcliffe in Greater Manchester, suddenly fell to the ground in the street on the penultimate night of the holiday. Medics battled for 50 minutes to revive him after he was rushed to hospital, but he was pronounced dead in the early hours of August 29 last year.
'We'd had a lovely holiday. We went for a week, we had a boat trip for my husband's 50th, which was fun. On the Thursday, we went out for a meal, everything was lovely,' explained Mum Lisa Heald, 46, speaking ahead of a charity football match in Branigan's honour.
But, eight months on, the family is still searching for answers - with the cause of their beloved son's death still unknown. 'That Thursday night, Branigan wasn't ill, he didn't say he had a headache or anything like that. He had his tea, a steak, and four beers. We were walking back to a bar on the corner near our hotel and he just collapsed.'
A nearby woman rushed to give CPR to Branigan while an ambulance was called. 'The ambulance came quite quickly, although I thought it was an absolute eternity,' Lisa said. Branigan had to travel from near their hotel, near Dalaman, to hospital in an ambulance with no family members by his side. By the time they arrived at the hospital, medics were already working on Branigan, but at around 12.25am doctors gave his loved ones the worst possible news.
'They came out and said 'we've tried for 50 minutes, we're sorry he is unresponsive',' Lisa recalled. The family was not able to give a final goodbye, with Branigan driven more than 230km away to Antalya for a post-mortem. 'We were due to fly back on the Saturday. As his mum, I said 'I can't go home and leave him here', but they drove him to Antalya for a post-mortem. They wouldn't let me see him.'
Branigan was flown back to London Gatwick on September 3, ahead of a Home Office post-mortem at Royal Oldham Hospital requested by the coroner. The 21-year-old's family hoped the examination would bring answers to why he had died, but mum Lisa confirmed the post-mortem gave 'no indication' towards what could have happened. They have been told that Branigan may have suffered a young sudden cardiac death, but no conclusive answer to bring closure to their tragic loss. Lisa adds that the coroner has ordered Turkish authorities to provide their documents from Branigan's post-mortem in Antalya in the hope of finding some much-needed answers.
'Hopefully by the end of June we will have some kind of answer,' Lisa said. 'As his mum, I've gone over that night - during the day, did he disappear at any point not feeling well? There was nothing. That night was no different from any other night.' Branigan's parents also worry for their two daughters, Mackenzie, 27, and Daisy, 14, as the pair cannot be screened for any potential issues until the family know what they're supposed to be looking out for.
'I'm living in fear every time Mackenzie wants to go on holiday,' admitted Lisa. 'But would [Branigan's death] have happened here anyway? Was it always going to be that day? There are so many questions that nobody has been able to answer. One of the hardest things is the world continues. The person I am now is not the same person when it happened. I was numb. But then you're back at work, and the guilt comes - how are you back to this when someone so precious has gone?'
'We flew back [from Turkey] and no one spoke. Still now we can't understand it. It's just like one second - your life changes in the blink of an eye. If it was a bang to the head from the fall [that caused Branigan's death] we could process it. I had never heard of sudden cardiac death in the young. Branigan went to the gym four times a week, he went out with his mates at the weekend. He wasn't overweight or unhealthy. He didn't have any underlying health conditions.'
Tragically, due to the state of his body following the time spent in Turkey, Branigan's family were unable to see him after he landed back in the UK. 'All that was taken away from us because of the amount of time it took to get him home,' said Lisa. 'When I asked to see him, the undertaker said 'we can't tell you no, we'd never do that, but they do things differently in different countries and I wouldn't want you to have that image for the rest of your life'. That's something else that we lost, that last goodbye. Everything was just taken away.'
Branigan had studied travel and tourism at Bury College before taking on an apprenticeship at Hays Travel, in Swinton, where he booked the holiday for a party of 12 to celebrate his dad's 50th birthday and arranged travel insurance. Before leaving school, the Bolton Wanderers fan was also a keen footballer, having begun at Radcliffe Juniors at a young age before joining Westbury. At 7.30pm on Friday, May 22, the two clubs will play a match at Radcliffe FC's Neuven Stadium in his honour to raise funds for the British Heart Foundation.
