This is the heartbreaking image of a one-year-old girl on life support who has died a week after choking on a cookie at her home in South Africa.

On 20th September, Isabella Stark died in hospital one week after choking on the cookie at her home in the town of Ermelo in the South African province of Mpumalanga.

Family spokesperson Juliet Basson said: “On Monday, the doctors phoned to say the family should come to the hospital. She was on an artificial life-support machine as her brain did not get enough oxygen.”

Basson said a decision was taken to turn off the life-support machine, adding: “She died the moment the machine was switched off.”

Joshua, the girl’s father, wrote on social media on Monday afternoon: “God blessed us with an angel, her name was Isabella. She has left us and now with Jesus. We were blessed to have her for 15 months in our life were she ruled our lives and we loved every moment.

“She has touched so many lives and now she is up in heaven watching over us as a angel and keeping us safe, and all we can say is thank you to each and everybody that has been praying or made a contribution.”

Basson explained that the one-year-old was toddling around the house as normal while enjoying a Macadamia cookie.

The tot stumbled and inadvertently inhaled parts of the cookie, forcing them down her little airway and into her lungs.

Isabella was taken to the Ermelo Provincial Hospital where doctors battled to revive her after her heart stopped beating and she was considered clinically dead for a couple of minutes.

Doctors then placed the tot in an induced coma and put her on a ventilator.

According to Basson, the family realised that “Isabella needed to be admitted to a hospital with a paediatric intensive care unit” and they had raised enough funds to airlift her to Netcare Garden City Hospital in the city of Johannesburg.

The family spokesperson said the girl went into the operating theatre later that same night.

Doctors successfully removed the particles from the girl’s lungs and she underwent neuroprotection therapy, which meant keeping her sedated.

However, one week after choking on the cookie, it was decided to turn off the life-support machine.

Following their daughter’s death, parents Joshua and Monica, who is five months pregnant, said: “We would like to thank each and everyone for the messages, calls, the love, and support we have received. We appreciate it.”