‘They have no idea what happened’: 22-year-old Destiny Cowling tragically dies

The young Adelaide woman’s grieving family says her life was just getting started when the seemingly impossible happened.

When Destiny Cowling took a nap after a weekend away camping with friends, she never woke up.

Days later, on April 6, her loving family was forced to make the unimaginable decision to turn off the 22-year-old’s life support and say goodbye to their “bubbly, loving girl”.

“They (doctors) have no idea what actually happened,” Destiny’s sister Belinda Cowling told The Advertiser on behalf of her family.

Three and a half weeks before Destiny died she went to the Noarlunga Hospital with low potassium.

“She was in overnight, they gave her potassium and she was all good,” Ms Cowling, who is 29, said.

Destiny, who lived in Huntfield Heights, even decided to go camping in Mannum with friends.

Destiny with her older sister Belinda. Picture: Supplied by family

Destiny will be forever 22 after she tragically stopped breathing suddenly in April. Picture: Supplied by family

“She was still feeling a little bit flat and Mum didn’t want her to go camping but, Destiny being Destiny, she was like ‘no I’m going to go’,” her sister said.

When Destiny returned from her time camping she was feeling sick – something she attributed to being a bit hungover.

She decided to take a nap but never woke up.

“She was just a typical 22-year-old,” Ms Cowling said.

“She was living her life. She just started being a disability support worker. She was learning sign language, just starting out her career.”

Ms Cowling said she will always remember how incredible Destiny was with her children, playing with them on the playground.

When Destiny took a nap after a weekend away camping, she never woke up. Picture: Supplied by family

She was focused on her career as a disability support worker. Picture: Supplied by family

Destiny had unexpectedly stopped breathing in her sleep.

“Her partner and her best friend did CPR for about 10 minutes then the ambulance got there and took over and did CPR for 90 minutes,” Ms Cowling said.

Destiny will be forever 22 after she tragically stopped breathing suddenly in April. Picture: Supplied by family

“They got her heart back and put her in an induced coma.

“They said there was some brain damage they could see on the scans.”

A few days later doctors told the Cowling family their Destiny was brain dead.

“They said … that we had to make some choices because she was never going to be okay, she wasn’t waking up, she wasn’t in a coma anymore, she wasn’t breathing on her own,” Ms Cowling said.

“So we decided to donate her organs and switch her life support off.”

Ms Cowling said she and her family made the decision together.

“We didn’t want my mum to make that decision on her own and have to live with that,” she said.

“We all agreed – it was the hardest thing we ever had to watch, especially for my mum, that was her baby.

“Donating her organs was very hard but we also thought about the other families that were going through what we were going through at the time.

“Destiny was a pretty healthy young girl so we thought if we could help another family, even though we were grieving with the loss of our sister and mum’s daughter, we know it would change someone else’s life and she loved helping people.”

Ms Cowling said her sister’s death made her realise “how precious life is”.

“You don’t know what could happen or what lies for anyone,” she said.

“It so tragic because she’s such a young girl. She never had any health problems that were that bad for something like that to happen out of nowhere.”

Doctors are still investigating what caused Destiny’s death.

Destiny was born on May 13 2001 and died on April 6 2024. She was 22 years old.

She is survived by her mum Jayne Cowling, her sister Belinda Cowling, her brothers Keith Anderson and Gary Cowling and her best friends Makayla Webster and Darren Heness.

If you’d like to donate to Destiny’s funeral expenses, you can here.

Originally published as ‘They have no idea what happened’: 22-year-old Destiny Cowling tragically dies