Keiana Herndon: Arkansas woman drops dead recording Facebook Live video while holding 1-year-old son
Keiana Herndon, 26, of Camden, Arkansas died while recording herself on Facebook Live on Dec. 28, 2016. She was holding her 1-year-old son.
Keiana Herndon was known for sharing her hopes and aspirations with her Facebook friends. The 26-year-old mother from Camden, Arkansas, had an audience reportedly of thousands when she recorded a video last week on Facebook Live.
On December 28, 2016, Herndon began her Facebook Live broadcast by singing. She was holding her 1-year-old son, Riley, talking about how she wanted to return to school. Suddenly, her demeanor changed. Her breathing began to be labored. She started to rub her eyes and her head began to shake, according to local media.
“She go to whipping her face and shaking her head, and I was thinking what’s wrong with Kei? We call her Kei. She then she fell back and then Riley picked the phone up and started talking and playing and then I hear (gasping) then I heard one more…I didn’t hear nothing else,” her aunt, Barbara Johnson, told KATV.
Then Herndon collapsed, falling to the floor with a thud. The audience, growing by the second, was stunned. According to reports, viewers could still hear mumbled sounds and the baby crying, but they knew something had gone horribly wrong.
Somebody called 911. First responders rushed over to her residence, but it was too late. The mother of two was pronounced dead at the hospital.
Early reports are that Herndon suffered from heart problems, which may have ultimately killed her, according to KATV.
Her uncle said that few people knew it, but Herndon dealt with a serious thyroid problem. But in recent weeks she got a bad news: She had cancer.
She felt so bad one day that she had to be rushed to the hospital.
“She told us it felt like her heart was about to jump out of her chest,” Jeffery Herndon told the Washington Post. “I ain’t never seen her cry — she was a strong woman to be just 25 years old — but she cried then.”
But her uncle is also angry, mostly at Herndon's Facebook "friends."
“How do you just sit there, especially after she passed out,” he told the Post. “And you hear the baby crying. I don’t see how people want to sit and watch a person take her last breath in front of her child, and then share the video of a child watching his mother die.”
He was quoted as saying: “To watch your mother take her last breath and these people getting kicks out of it, thrills out of it. It’s just tragic.”
Herndon's mother, Mary Morgan, told the Daily Mail that she couldn't believe it when she was told what happened.
“I put on some house shoes and a pair of pants and got into the car and drove to the hospital. The nurse came in and told me that my baby was gone,” Morgan was quoted as saying.
A GoFundMe account in Herndon's behalf memorializes her death "in the eyes of Facebook" and talks about the trauma her little son witnessed.
"On the night of December 28, 2016, we lost Keiana. Her son was a witness to the passing of his mother along with the eyes of Facebook. To know Keiana was to love her. Keiana was a beautiful, free spirited and loving mother, daughter, sister, aunt and friend. The abundance of love she spread, I know that we can show our love during this time. Keiana leaves behind two awesome little boys, Ja'Kylan and Rylee these two were her world. The family is not asking for donations but as a friend of Keiana's I feel that this would be a great way to show our love. Prayer for the Mitchell and Herndon family during this time would be great. Thanks everyone!"
“Never knew that was going to be the last breath she would take, on social media live,” her aunt, Barbara Johnson, told KATV.
Facebook has reportedly removed the video.