Kiwi granddad pays respects to flu girl

Australia suspended vaccination of young children with Fluvax last week. Photo / Natalie Slade

A toddler who died in her Australian home a day after having a flu vaccine is a part-Maori girl whose father grew up in Tokoroa.

Two-year-old Ashley Jade Epapara was found dead in her cot on April 9, 12 hours after she and twin sister Jamie received shots at their local GP's office in Mt Gravatt, Brisbane.

A coronial investigation is being made.

The girls' father, David Epapara, 40, moved to Australia in the early 1990s from Tokoroa, where he grew up, to find work as a builder.

He met his Australian wife, Nicole, soon after he arrived.

Speaking last night from his home in Rotoiti, near Rotorua, Bob Epapara, David's father, told the Herald his son had celebrated his 40th birthday with friends and family days before his daughter's death.

Mr Epapara and his partner, Grace, flew to Australia the day after Ashley died for her funeral and to be with the couple, who also have a son Matthew, 6.

The family stayed at Nicole's parents house in the Brisbane suburb of Carindale as the grieving parents did not want to sleep where their baby girl had died, Mr Epapara said.

The house had since been blessed.

Mr Epapara said he accompanied his son and daughter-in-law to the hospital where an autopsy had been carried out.

"The doctors said they couldn't find out what happened. They told us it could be a month before they know. They took lots of samples and that sort of thing and sent them away."

Mr Epapara had never met the twins but had been planning a holiday when Ashley died.

"Jamie knew something was wrong, the other one was gone. She was always calling out her name, she was a real chatterbox."

He had visited his son when he married Nicole in 1996 and a year after Matthew was born.

The little boy still remembered his "Koro", Mr Epapara said.

"We went to the chapel and as soon as we sat down, we were right in the front, he knew what was going on. He started crying. I was hugging him and rubbing his head."

Ashley's body was cremated and her ashes are expected to be put in a wall at the chapel.