A week after she was found in a Florida Keys swimming pool, Georgia toddler dies

A 2-year-old Georgia girl died Thursday, almost a week after she was found unresponsive in the swimming pool of the Florida Keys vacation rental home in which she and her family were staying.

Leland Rudeen’s family released a statement on Facebook Thursday saying that she had died a day after undergoing an MRI at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital near South Miami.

“Shortly after the devastating MRI results, as we were trying to wrap our head around some hard decisions ahead of us, Leland took the choice out of our hands and started her painless decline,” the statement reads. “Our little princess is resting now.”

The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office on Friday confirmed the toddler’s death. Her family could not be immediately reached for comment.

Leland and her family, from Cumming, Georgia, were vacationing at a home on Coco Plum Drive in the Middle Keys city of Marathon last week. Shortly before 11 a.m. last Friday, April 9, the little girl’s second birthday, her family briefly lost sight of her. They soon found her unconscious in the home’s swimming pool, according to the sheriff’s office.

Medics rushed her to Fisherman’s Community Hospital in Marathon, and from there, the county’s medical helicopter flew her to Nicklaus Children’s Hospital.

The sheriff’s office does not suspect foul play, spokesman Adam Linhardt said.

Her father, Benjamin Rudeen, had been updating news of his daughter’s condition since then on his Facebook page. On Monday, he reported that Leland’s kidney’s and heart were improving, but her brain and lungs were not.

In the statement announcing her death, Rudeen said the family was donating Leland’s organs to children in need.

“She was always very caring and always wanted to help others,” the family wrote. “It only seems right that with her death, we are giving her the chance to save others.”

Friends of the family started a Gofundme account to help them pay Leland’s medical expenses. The family said they are planning a celebration of life for her.