A four-year-old girl has died after choking while eating a chicken nugget as her heartbroken dad paid tribute.
Rebecca Rayane da Silva Pereira was having dinner with her family when she choked on her food in the city of Jundiai, in the south-eastern Brazilian state of Sao Paulo, on October 23.
She had been eating chicken nuggets, together with some beans and rice, when she suddenly started struggling to breathe.
Rebecca was rushed to hospital but was declared dead on arrival.
Her dad, Diego Alves Pereira, told local media: "I was working and my wife was at home with my seven-year-old boy.
"At the time, my wife tried to perform the Heimlich manoeuvre on her, but she couldn't do it and she called the neighbour.
“They took the car and went to A&E."
According to Diego, his daughter regularly choked on her food, as she was born prematurely at 33 weeks with oesophageal atresia, a birth defect of the swallowing tube, which prompted her to undergo two surgeries before the age of 20 days.
Doctors told Diego his daughter would be unable to speak.
However, she surprised everyone by starting to form words at the age of one.
He said: "The first word she said was 'daddy'. Since she learnt to speak, she didn't go a day without praying.
“The biggest lesson she gave us was prayer."
He told local media: "It will be difficult now. She was such a smart kid with so much to live for and loved by everyone."
