KEY POINTS:
A 2-year-old boy - the brother of a little girl who fronted a nationwide television campaign for cancer publicity - has died after choking on a meat pattie.
Tomas Francis Hourigan, nicknamed Tom Tom, died while sitting on his father Dennis' knee and munching on a variety of
foods at a church barbecue in Masterton last weekend.
"Sunday was the worst of the worst," said Dennis, a construction worker. "He had been eating patties, and then had some other food, and then some fruit salad, and was eating some more pattie.
"He was sitting on my knee. I sort of heard him cough and it was a half cough-choke."
Tomas had a rare form of brain damage that affected his ability to suck and swallow.
During his birth, he suffered from asphyxia and was not expected to survive.
Dennis said he and wife Rachel watched as Tomas was tube-fed for 10 months.
Despite medical predictions, the brave battler made huge progress, to the point where he could handle solid food.
"He knew when he was in trouble," a grieving Dennis said.
"He gave definite signs. It [the pattie] had got aspirated in his windpipe. People there at church tried to get it all out but they couldn't because it was so far down. It's a pretty hard process."
Paramedics performed CPR for half an hour but Tomas died at the scene.
The family is coping with their loss with the help of friends, family and their church.
"We are taking it day by day, hour by hour," Dennis said. "We've got a lot of friends and family still around.
"We'll have to learn to cope without them all the time."
Tomas' siblings - Dan, 10, Connor, 6, and Hunter, 4 - are also struggling.
"Dan and Connor fully understand," said Dennis. "Hunter is only 4 and thought it could be fixed again."
Rachel, a stay-at-home mum, and Dennis are no strangers to hardship.
Their daughter Connor is a cancer sufferer, currently in remission, who became the face of Child Cancer New Zealand's 2006 publicity campaign.
The close-knit family farewelled Tomas last Wednesday.
"He did so many things more than they said he would," Dennis said. "There were so many big milestones and special moments.
"He loved being outside. He loved the sandpit. He was a real boy.
"He was a cute, bubbly little boy full of love."
In April last year, Brodie Stephen Monk-Ulyatt, 3, of Napier, choked to death on a small piece of jelly-snake lolly and a cocktail sausage at his birthday party.