A toddler has died after being diagnosed with the same rare genetic disease that killed her three-year-old brother. Isabelle Cooper, 2 , died on Thursday September 19, just three years after her brother Alexander died of the same heart disorder on Boxing Day 2021. Her mum, Dr Emily Cooper, said their family is ‘absolutely broken’ over the death of ‘our beautiful Isabelle’.
Dr Cooper, who is a lecturer at the University of Central Lancashire , previously revealed how she was unaware of Alexander’s condition until two years after he died. The mother-of-two later found out that Isabelle had the same disorder, known as the PPA2 mutation, and that her and her daughter’s father, Darren Bowes, were also carriers. Taing to X on Thursday, Dr Cooper shared the tragic news: ‘We are devastated to say that our beautiful Isabelle died in the early hours of this morning.
We are absolutely broken. ‘However, we want you all not to think of her death, but to honour her by living life as she did: fearlessly, joyously & spontaneously.’ Appearing on ITV news last year, the mother said Alexander had been suffering from a ‘mild stomach bug’ on Christmas Day, which they thought he had recovered from.
Dr Cooper then went on a walk with her other son, and when they returned home there were police cars in front of their home. ‘Somebody said Alexander had had a seizure,’ she told ITV. ‘I got to the hospital and was told my husband had done a heroic job of CPR at home, on his .