Suburban U.S. Rep. Sean Casten’s 17-year-old daughter died in June of sudden heart failure in the family’s Downers Grove home, the congressman said Friday.
In a statement released Friday afternoon on Twitter, the two-term Democratic congressman said Gwen Casten “died of a sudden cardiac arrhythmia. In layman’s terms, she was fine, and then her heart stopped.”
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“We don’t know what caused the arrhythmia, and likely never will,” Casten said.
Gwen Casten “ate well, exercised, got regular check-ups, didn’t suffer from any behavioral health issues, and had close relationships with family and friends,” Casten said in the statement. “She was fully vaccinated, and quarantined after occasional positive, asymptomatic COVID tests during the omicron wave.”
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“She had a big, beautiful, kind, loving heart,” the statement says. “And it stopped, as all must.”
The DuPage County coroner’s office confirmed late Friday afternoon that Gwen Casten died of natural causes, due to a heart arrhythmia.
Downers Grove police were called to the Casten home just before 7 a.m. on June 13 “for an unresponsive 17-year-old female,” according to a Downers Grove Police Department statement. “First responders determined that the subject was deceased.”
[ Family of Gwen Casten says the only thing known about her death is that it was ‘peaceful’ ]
In a statement after her death, the Casten family said Gwen Casten had dinner with her family and then went out with some friends. When she got home, she said good night to her parents and texted a friend to make sure she got home safely. Gwen Casten did not wake up the next morning, according to the statement at the time.
At the time of his daughter’s death, Casten was locked in a reelection fight with fellow Democratic U.S. Rep. Marie Newman. A few weeks later, he won the 6th Congressional District primary for the Democratic Party nomination. Casten is facing Orland Park Mayor Keith Pekau, the Republican nominee, in the general election Nov. 8.
jebyrne@chicagotribune.com
jkeilman@chicagotribune.com
