Tragedy struck in February when Stephanie Smith, a mother of two, died on a flight home from her vacation in the Dominican Republic. Her autopsy results have reportedly been released, confirming the 41-year-old woman died of natural causes.
According to her brother, Chris Volz, Smith passed away from a carotid artery dissection in her neck. “It was truly a tragic medical event that happened,” he told the outlet, adding that the autopsy revealed no evidence of foul play.
Smith was on an American Airlines flight from Punta Cana. The flight was on its way to a connection in Charlotte, North Carolina when she suddenly began convulsing. It started shortly after takeoff, forcing the plane to divert to Turks and Caicos, according to her friend, Maria Yannotti.
“Her boyfriend had told us that they were getting ready to … get altitude, or they hadn’t been in the air very long. But he said that he looked over at her, and her head was tilted back in her seat. Her eyes were rolled in the back of her head, and he thought she was just making fun of them. They normally joke around … like that,” said Yannotti, who was on the trip to Punta Cana with her fiancé, Smith, and Smith’s boyfriend.
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“And he said, ‘Next thing you know, she was convulsing,'” Yannotti added. Smith’s boyfriend swung into action immediately, asking flight attendants for help, and they began performing CPR. But it was all to no avail.
The Turks and Caicos Islands Police announced that day they received a call at 6:12 p.m. from “the Air Traffic Control Tower requesting medical assistance for a 41-year-old female, who at the time was receiving [CPR].”
A medical team and police were waiting at the scene upon their arrival. They transported Smith to the Cheshire Hall Medical Centre, where she was pronounced dead.
Just before her plane took off, Smith texted Yannotti at 4:55 p.m. She wanted Yannotti to remind her to call once she reached her connection in Charlotte because she had “a funny story” to tell. Neither of them knew she would not be able to say it.
According to Yannotti, Smith and her boyfriend went on the trip to celebrate Yannotti’s fiancé’s birthday.
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“Everything she had, I had,” Yannotti said. “We ate about the same meals. We drank about the same drinks. You know, it wasn’t like [any]body was belligerent. [W]e just had our nice drinks by the pool and by the beach. I mean, most of the time, we watched them open the bottles right in front of us. We were having a great time.”
Yannotti, who said she has known Smith for nearly two years because their partners are friends, has described her as a “ball of energy” and “the life of the party.”
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“She’s definitely one of a kind. She was a ball of energy. She was always willing to help somebody, excited, and always smiling. When I met her … I just knew we were going to click because she was a personality like myself. She was just full of life. I mean, she would give anybody a shirt off her back. Sometimes, she would put … people before herself, and she loved to have a good time. Loved to laugh … sing karaoke. Just the life of the party.”
Sadly, Smith leaves behind an 18-year-old son and 16-year-old daughter. Her body will be in the United States next week.
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