Millena Brandão, Brazilian Child Actor Dead at 11

Originally appeared on E! Online

Brazil is mourning the loss of a rising star.

Millena Brandão, known for her work on the Netflix series Sintonia, has died, her parents Thays Brandão and Luiz Brandão confirmed. She was 11.

“Open letter to my little girl. On May 2nd we lost our little girl, but I’m sure she’s in the arms of our almighty father and in a beautiful place to play,” her parents wrote in a lengthy Instagram statement, translated from Portuguese, May 3. “The memories we spent together will remain in my memory and I’ll never forget your joy that was contagious to everyone around you. My girl, I’m already missing you more and more not having you here and I know I’ll miss you even more in the days to come!”

“You were the light in our lives and I know that from up there you’ll continue to watch over us and light up our lives,” the message continued. “And I’ll love you forever, and you’ll always be in my heart. I love you my girl 12/27/2013 to 05/02/2025.”

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Following her tragic death, Millena’s parents shared insight into the illness she’d been battling, which included headaches, loss of appetite and her ability to walk, and led to multiple hospitalizations. Eventually, as her mother Thays shared, the 11-year-old suffered multiple heart attacks and in addition had an undetermined mass on her brain.

“She got worse, with two to three cardiac arrests per day. She had 13 arrests in total,” Thays told Brazilian outlet G1. “She had never had that before. There was one day when she had seven respiratory arrests. Sometimes they gave her massages and other times they gave her shocks [with a device called a defibrillator].”

According to her mother, Millena was intubated and did not regain consciousness. Ultimately, leading her parents—who are also parents of a 2-year-old—to take her off life support.

“I said that if we were to let her little heart stop beating on its own, we would suffer more, and so would she,” Thays said. “And we asked for the machines to be turned off.”

Millena’s official cause of death has not yet been determined.

After announcing her death, Thays and Luiz shared a video on Instagram May May 5 of Millena through the years alongside the caption, “Our eternal angel went o shine in the sky. I will miss you forever my girl, may you take care of us and protect us from all evil.”