A young woman who kicked her boyfriend out of bed because his loud snores woke her up was horrified to discover the noises were actually his dying breaths.
Lisa Lee says she had been assured by medics that her partner, Lewis Little, who suffered from a rare heart condition which causes an abnormal heartbeat, would live a "long and healthy life".
Little, 25, of Northumberland, was diagnosed as a "low risk" sufferer only for his heart to stop in the middle of the night. The snoring sound his partner heard was actually the air leaving his body and passing through the vocal chords.
The mother-of-one has now started a petition to get people with the rare condition fitted with an internal defibrillator (ICD), which restarts the heart and she believes would have saved his life.
Lee, also 25, said: "We were told that Lewis would have a long, happy and healthy life – but he died one year after diagnosis. When we were in bed I just thought he was snoring, so I kicked him out of the bed and told him to shut up.
"But I felt that the sheets were wet and knew something was wrong. I turned the lights on and his face was purple – he wasn't breathing. I called an ambulance and it felt like it took forever. They pronounced him dead at the hospital.
"I later found out that the snoring sound was the air leaving his body. Losing Lewis has destroyed me and our son Tyler. I believe being fitted with an ICD would have saved my partner's life.
"I want people with the same condition to have the choice, low risk or high to have an ICD fitted. The syndrome is a silent killer – I just want to raise awareness of it and make sure something gets done."
The couple, from Ashington, Northumberland, visited the Wansbeck Hospital in Ashington and the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle for regular check-ups after learning about Lewis' condition, but say they were assured that he was "low-risk".
Little, who worked as an agency worker, lived a completely normal and active life and was not prescribed any medication for the condition. Lee now worries that their two-year-old son Tyler may also have the hereditary condition and fears history may repeat itself.
The sales assistant said: "I know I can't change what happened to my family, but I just want to save other families from going through the same grief because of Brugada. Lewis should have had the option to have an ICD fitted, but he wasn't 'high risk' enough.
"Things like this can't be categorised. Lewis was my soul mate. He would always say to me that he would propose – he had already picked out our wedding song.
"It has just put everything into perspective, life is so short and I feel like I was very naive to think that nothing like this would ever happen."