13-year-old actress Laurel Griggs passed away unexpectedly last Tuesday after suffering a massive asthma attack.
The tragic incident occurred during a peaceful evening — the young Broadway star was doing her homework in her family home in Manhattan, when she told her father, Andy Griggs, that she was not feeling well.
The grieving dad told the New York Post: “She said, ‘I don’t think I feel so good,’ which immediately set off all the alarms in my head. She would never normally say something like that. We dealt with it swiftly, and I became aware of how deadly the illness was, My wife noticed that she was having trouble breathing, and she turned to me, and she said, ‘Andy, get her to the hospital right away.”
Since Laurel was battling with asthma from the moment she was born and was normally taking medications; her parents were already familiar with the dangers of the illness.
The teen’s complaint and the visible trouble in her breathing quickly alerted her mother and father, and they wasted no time in calling for help.
The aspiring star was brought to Mount Sinai Hospital, but despite all medical care, she went into a cardiac arrest and passed away only two hours after the attack had begun.
The funeral was held three days later at a chapel in Manhattan, and a second memorial service was organized on Sunday at the Arte Café in the Chelsea neighborhood, where a lot of friends and fans gathered to pay their final respects to the late teen.
Griggs debuted on the Broadway scene back in 2013 when she was just six years old.
For her first part, she starred as Polly alongside Scarlett Johansson in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.”
After that, she moved on with the role of Ivanka in the musical “Once” in 2013. The actress also played in a couple of commercials and the TV series Louie and Bubble Gruppies, as well as Woody Allen‘s movie Café Society in 2016.
The young girl also appeared on two episodes of Saturday Night Live.
Fans have taken to social media to express their condolences. One supporter stated: “A thousand condolences because you will always be present in our hearts you left, but you will be present in everything you did rest in peace and GOD LES YOU OF THE CURE AH HIS HEART.”
Her story has gone viral.
