5-year-old dead after being strangled by backyard swing in freak accident

Saturday, May 17, 2024 - A 5-year-old Colorado girl died days after she was strangled by her disc swing in a freak accident.

Aurora Masters was playing in the backyard of her Fort Collins home last week when she somehow became entangled in the jungle gym accessory.

“She pulled her little plastic slide over to where her swing was,” her great-aunt Brenda Kennedy told KDVR-TV.

“And somehow got caught up in the swing, and the swing strangled her.”

Aurora was rushed to the hospital in critical condition and spent several days in the PICU until her family made the difficult decision to pull the plug.

“Aurora was without oxygen and that caused her brain to swell. An MRI today confirmed that the swelling was significant enough that it will not go down and we have made the difficult decision to transition Aurora to end-of-life care and organ donation,” Kennedy wrote on an online fundraiser.

She was kept on life support for two days to preserve her organs, which were then donated to other children in need.

Sadly, she officially died on Monday, May 13.

The Fort Collins Police Department is not investigating Aurora’s death any further, telling USA Today that there was no probable cause of any criminal behavior and has ruled the incident a tragic accident.