New Zealand rugby player Kathleen “Kath” Wharton’s cause of death has reportedly been revealed nine months after the mom of four was found unresponsive in a McDonald’s parking lot.
Wharton died at 41 years old from sudden cardiac arrest while she was taking a nap in an Auckland, New Zealand, McDonald’s parking lot “after a long-haul flight from a rugby tournament in Japan” on November 21, 2024, the New Zealand Herald reported on Saturday, August 23, citing associate coroner Hannah Cheeseman’s findings.
The associate coroner also found that Wharton had COVID-19 at the time of her death. The virus, along with the effects of a long flight and jet lag, was deemed a possible contributing factor in the athlete’s death, Fox Sports Australia reported. Dr. Kilak Kesha, who conducted the post-mortem, stated that COVID-19 can potentially “unmask” an existing cardiac problem.
Before her death, Wharton had been in Japan with her husband, Andrew, and their daughter, according to multiple reports. A teammate’s child had lost their passport, so she opted to travel with the child instead of heading back to New Zealand with her family and the rest of her team.
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Kath’s flight was direct to Auckland and landed before the other plane. She reportedly went to her family’s vehicle and messaged her husband at 12:10 p.m., saying that she would park at McDonald’s and nap until he and their daughter landed.
“When [Kath] did not arrive to pick him up, or respond to messages and calls, her husband made his way to the McDonald’s. There, [Kath] was located, unresponsive, in her vehicle,” the associate coroner’s report read, per Fox Sports Australia.
Kath was pronounced dead at the scene at 2:43 p.m.
“Words cannot express the grief we feel at the loss of my darling Kath. She touched so many lives and worked tirelessly for our people, for our tamariki,” Andrew said after his wife’s death.
Kath played for New Zealand’s women’s rugby league team, the Kiwi Ferns, 14 times between 2008 and 2019, winning one World Cup. She also played three NRLW matches in 2019 for the Warriors, according to Radio New Zealand (RNZ).
In addition to her work on the sports field, Kath was an advocate for her community as the manager of Healthy Families Far North, which aims to “improve the health of our people where we live, learn, work and play.”
“She was a leader, a protector, she was all about Tino rangatiratanga, she was passionate, she was our big sister, our go-to lady and I can’t even imagine what life is going to look like up here without her, it’s really heartbreaking,” Kath’s colleague Talei Anderson told RNZ.
Anderson continued, “She’s inspired many lives, she’s touched many hearts across Northland, she would go to the end and back to ensure we could do our mahi, she was just an amazing person. She was always about giving our rangatahi and tamariki opportunities to thrive. It’s a huge loss for everyone up here.”
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The organization honored Kath via Instagram for International Women’s Day in March.
“Kath didn’t just work in systems change; she lived it. She was relentless in her pursuit of equity and always hustling to shift resources and power into the hands of those who needed them most,” the post read. “Kath had a vision that went beyond her mahi in Healthy Families, it was a vision to build prevention practice across different spaces, places and kaupapa.”
The tribute concluded, “We miss Kath deeply, and we honour her by continuing the mahi — striving for the health and wellbeing of our communities, and our mokopuna.”
