'I can't breathe', last text of girl too weak to call out to father

London: A teenager died after an asthma attack so severe that she could not call out and had to text her father for help — even though he was just downstairs.

Siobhan Ullah, 18, sent the message "I can't breathe".

It was only half an hour after she had updated her status on Facebook to "feels like death". Her father Yousuf ran upstairs and tried to calm her down to help her breathe. He also called an ambulance.

But Siobhan, who had suffered from asthma for years, never regained consciousness and later died in hospital.

Ullah, a fork-lift truck driver, told how his daughter had complained on the morning of September 25 of a tight chest and stayed in her bedroom texting friends and using her BlackBerry on social networking sites.

The performing arts student from Bradford initially updated her Facebook status to "feels ill" earlier in the day. As her condition deteriorated she posted the message "feels like death".

Just 28 minutes later she sent the text call for help to her father as he watched a Grand Prix on TV. Ullah said: "She didn't have the lungs to shout out for help so she texted me. I ran upstairs and tried to reassure he and get her to stretch to open up her chest and get her to breathe deep.

"It is all about calming asthma sufferers and reassuring them. I couldn't get the timing right for her inhaler and I phoned the ambulance because I knew it was going to be a severe attack."

Ullah, 45, told how his daughter gasped "I think I'm going to stop breathing, I think I'm going to die", before collapsing.

He gave her the kiss of life and continued to try to revive her until paramedics arrived. However, the asthma had triggered a heart attack and she had to be put on a life support machine at Bradford Royal Infirmary.

It was switched off the next day after doctors declared her brain dead.

— Daily Mail