‘A child goes to bed and doesn’t wake up’: the families left in shock after the sudden death of their healthy children

‘A major, preventable public health emergency’ … Gordon Thoms lost his 23-year-old daughter Alexandra to sudden cardiac arrest in 2023. Photograph: Christopher Hopkins/The Guardian

Before Alexandra Thoms goes to sleep, she puts together a flat-pack dining table with her father, Gordon. She needs the table for her otherwise sparse two-bedroom Melbourne apartment which she has moved into just weeks earlier.

At 23, Alexandra has met the milestones of an ambitious life at lightning speed. She is well travelled, has earned a double university degree and a graduate job at Deloitte. She is healthy; an avid skier and gymgoer. Now, she is also a homeowner. She didn’t have a formal housewarming, though, as most of her friends still live at home.