Former Miss Teen Universe Lotte Van Der Zee, 20, dies following heart attack
Former Miss Teen Universe Lotte van der Zee has died two weeks after suffering a sudden heart attack, her parents shared Thursday on the model's Instagram.
The 20-year-old from Holland died on Wednesday her parents said.
"Our pearl, our everything passed away on Wednesday evening March 6th at 22:47," her parents, Bert van der Zee and Eugeniek van der Zee van het Hul, shared. "It is incredibly surreal that our dearly beloved Lotte is not around us anymore. Our hearts are truly broken.
"We would like to thank you all again for all the support and heartwarming messages."
Lotte van der Zee was named Miss Teenager Universe in 2017.
Pageant organizers sent their condolences to family and friends, saying, "Losing someone we loved is not easy, but knowing that we have been able to be part of her life, it has been an amazing journey, we now realize that we were blessed to share your life and career with us."
Her parents first posted on Feb. 22 that van der Zee had gone into cardiac arrest while the family was on a ski vacation in Westendorf, Austria, celebrating her 20th birthday.
"She was helped to the nearest hospital where she got into a coma and is since then kept a sleep under intensive supervision of the doctors in order to monitor her health," her parents wrote on her Instagram page.
Van der Zee has 170,000 followers on Instagram and documented her life, traveling around the globe.
She was flown to a hospital in Munich last week, her parents said, but was still in a coma. She never regained consciousness before her death Wednesday.
"Even though the feeling of powerlessness made us think that we were in this alone at first we were able to draw a massive amount of strength from all your loving support," they wrote. "We are convinced that Lotte feels this too. Lotte's situation is unfortunately still unchanged. However, she has now been transferred to an academic hospital in Munich, where she is still kept a sleep under intensive supervision of the doctors in order to monitor her health."
