Toddler died hours after slipping on marble floor in her family's Portuguese holiday apartment after day at the beach 

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Chloe Godding had been playing with her brother on the beach but shortly after the family returned to the apartment she fell and may have struck her head

A two-year-old girl died on a family holiday in the Portuguese Algarve just hours after slipping on the marble floor of a holiday apartment, an inquest heard today.

Toddler Chloe Godding, from Chandler's Ford, in Hampshire, had been playing with her brother on the beach but shortly after the family returned to the apartment she fell and it is thought she may have struck her head.

Winchester Coroner's Court heard although Chloe immediately got up following her fall, just hours later her mother Lucy, 33, found her lying face down in a blood-soaked pillow shortly after putting her to bed.

Mrs Godding, a qualified nurse, picked Chloe up and tried to resuscitate her in the living room of the apartment but the little girl was comatose and her lips were blue.

Chloe's father Nicholas, 36, rang for an ambulance while a desperate Mrs Godding ran out of the apartment screaming 'help me please' along the corridor outside.

A passing English trainee doctor came to her aid and began to help with the chest compressions until an ambulance arrived.

But by the time Chloe arrived at hospital after a lengthy 30 minute wait for an ambulance her parents were told she had died.

A coroner was unable to give a definite cause of death for the youngster, who died on May 8 this year in the seaside resort of Albufeira.

A Portuguese pathologist found she died from a severe head injury following a blow to the back of the head, but Dr Samantha Holden, who carried out a second autopsy in the UK, found little evidence to support this finding.

The blow was also not consistent with the way Chloe fell forwards, Winchester Coroner's Court heard.

The toddler, who was about to turn three at the end of May, slipped after returning from the resort's swimming pool with no shoes on at around 5.30pm.

Chloe's parents, Lucy and Nicholas Godding are pictures arriving at Winchester Coroner's Court

She screamed and called for her mother, saying: 'Mummy, cuddle! Mummy, cuddle!' 

Mrs Godding checked her over but could not find any signs of injury.

She told the inquest: 'She was straight up at that point. She was not red at all, there was no bump or anything. I think she would say if she was hurting.'

The inquest heard later that evening Chloe behaved normally, eating dinner and reading a book with her parents before going to bed.

Mrs Godding put her daughter to bed and checked on her at around 9pm, when she said she was 'snoring'.

But when she checked on her again at 10.30pm to kiss her children goodnight, she described a smell of faeces coming from Chloe's bed.

She said: 'She had never opened her bowels sleeping. She was still lying face down but she was looking really uncomfortable.

'Her face was straight down in the pillow. My husband sat on the bed and tapped her on the shoulder, and she didn't move.

'He pulled her left shoulder up, her face turned over and I just saw approximately 20cm of blood on her pillow.

'Her eyes were closed but there was blood around her nose, and her lips were blue. We both screamed.

'I grabbed her and ran into the living room to begin trying to resuscitate her.'

As she did so, she described red liquid coming from her mouth while Mr Godding and Chloe's grandparents desperately called for an ambulance.

Chloe's mother, a nurse, checked on her after her fall and could not see any signs of injury

She added: 'It all seemed hopeless. I picked her up and ran along the corridor screaming at people, saying 'help me please, help me'.'

Mr Godding told the court: 'I caught her slip out the corner of my eye - she fell forwards, but I think just on to her knees.'

Pathologist Dr da Silva Roubaco, carrying out a post-mortem examination in Portugal, said he found a 5cm bruise on the back of her scalp and some bleeding in the brain and ruled she died from a severe head injury brought on by the slip.

However, Dr Holden in the UK said she was 'not convinced' Chloe suffered a head injury after carrying out her own autopsy, but she admitted her examination was hampered because of the post mortem examination already carried out in Portugal.

She said: 'My belief is Chloe's death wasn't as a result of any trauma.It would be unusual without seeing a skull fracture or severe hemorrhage, which was not described in the initial post mortem report.

'Even after she had fallen she was acting quite normally.'

Her autopsy found Chloe showed early signs of bronchopneumonia on her lungs and sepsis, but she couldn't definitely say this caused or led to her death.

Senior Coroner Grahame Short, recording an open verdict as her cause of death could not be ascertained, said: 'I do have some difficulty in this case.

'Chloe was an apparently healthy two-year-old girl on holiday with her family. She wasn't showing any signs of illness but was a bit tired.

'When she came back to the apartment sometime around 5.30pm she fell in the hallway.It appears to me this was an accidental slip of some kind, but precisely what happened is unclear.

'But upon hearing the evidence there is nothing to conclude that Chloe fell backwards and struck the back of her head in the way that seems to have been identified by the first post mortem.'

He added: 'Chloe Godding died due to an unascertained medical cause at around 5.30pm. I cannot think of anything worse than a death of this kind in the family.

'I can only give you my sympathy. It's very unfortunate we haven't come to a clear cause at the end of it.' 

After the inquest a heartbroken Mrs Godding paid tribute to her daughter and said the family 'misses her every minute of every day'.

She said: 'Chloe will always be our beautiful daughter, she was always smiling and a lover of life.

'We are obviously devastated that Chloe is no longer here with us and miss her every minute of every day.

'In such a heartbreaking and life changing tragedy, we try to take comfort in the fact that every day of Chloe's life was a happy one for her.

'She woke up every single day smiling and went to bed each night happy.

'She never had any worries in the world and was totally adored by her whole family. If love could have saved Chloe, she would have lived forever.

'We are grateful for all the support shown by friends, as well as the local community, and we want to take this opportunity to thank everybody for their help.

'We would appreciate some time now as a family to absorb the findings from the inquest in privacy.' 

• Chloe's parent have set up a fund in memory of their daughter. Money raised will be donated to the Peter Pan Preschool in Chandlers Ford where Chloe loved to spend time. To donate click here

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