Child gives mother final kiss before she is taken off life support

Australian woman dies during childbirth from ear infection, leaving a widowed husband and two children

Imogen's 17-month-old son JB giving his mother one final kiss (GoFundMe)

The heartbreaking moment a one-year-old baby gave his mother a final kiss has been captured in a touching photograph.

Imogen Petrak was 36-weeks pregnant when she admitted to hospital with symptoms of an ear infection, and is believed to have contracted a strain of bacterial meningococcal - a rare form of meningitis.

Her daughter Eleanor was delivered by an emergency C section four-weeks premature, but Imogen died due to severe swelling on her brain.

Shortly before she passed away, her 17-month-old son JB was brought into her hospital room so give her a kiss on the forehead.


 Baby JB gives his mum a final kiss before she died 
 (GoFundMe)

A GoFundMe page has now been set up by her friend Renee, who runs a local playgroup on the Gold Coast in Australia.

She hopes to raise $100,000 for Imogen’s husband John and the two children.

“Please please join me and help. I am completely undone, for babies so small to lose their mother, and husband loosing not only the mother of their children but his life partner, his beloved wife,” King wrote on the GoFundMe page.

“My goal is to raise enough funds for John and his children to help cover funeral costs and to give him a buffer over the next year whilst he is figuring out how to navigate this new life he’s been dealt as single daddy to these two beautiful needy babies.

"Their lives have been completely turned upside down."

"How do you tell your baby that mummy isn’t coming home.

"I just can’t fathom the pain and heartache, the loss that is being felt right now."

So far, King has raised over $95,000 and updates are regularly posted to the fund’s Facebook page, Imogen’s Light.