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11-21-2005, 07:41 PM
Teen Dies Trying Out For High School Basketball Team
November 16, 2005
By Bryan Johnson
Video : KOMO 4 NEWS
14-year-old Keaundri McBride collapsed and died at Tacoma's Foss High School Tuesday night.
TACOMA - A 14-year-old girl at Tacoma's Foss High School turning out for the basketball team collapsed and died Tuesday night.
Keaundri "Kiki" McBride was 14, happy and athletic. Her friend Germaine Henderson told KOMO 4 News, "she was a funny little girl. Used to play around in the halls. She did her work though; she was cool. Everybody knew her."
The 1,900 students at Foss learned Wednesday of Kiki's death. "Usually our school is very loud," Henderson said. "Today, not a sound. Like a library. The whole school's a library."
Kiki is the third student athlete to die suddenly in the past three years. Merridy Stillwell was running track, completed a mile, and then collapsed and died. Steven Brillhart was playing soccer, sat on the bench, collapsed and died.
All three had passed school physicals.
The two who died earlier had HCM -- Hypertrophic CardioMyopathy.
Gary Nicholson is the trainer at Pacific Lutheran University and a former head trainer with the Chicago Cubs. He also worked for the Seattle Mariners.
"The kids have had a physical," he said. "But it just checks blood pressure and heart rate and the sound of the heart."
He adds the most common cause of sudden collapse is HCM. One in 500 has the gene, but only 1 in 200,000 will die.
The only test for HCM is unreliable, as for each positive it would give a person at risk of collapse and death would be accompanied by 400 false positives. And the test costs hundreds, if not thousands of dollars.
But for the kids at Foss, medical facts fade into the background when reality hits.
Kaza Ayersman said of Kiki, "A really pretty girl that was just amazing. I saw a lot of potential in her. And she was a good basketball player."
Rebecca Coles, another friend, said, "She was about the same age as me. It's like I know now that no one is really immortal. And it's like I could even drop dead this morning."
Tacoma school officials had counselors present at the school Wednesday. The counselors will return on Thursday. No memorial service has yet been scheduled.
November 16, 2005
By Bryan Johnson
Video : KOMO 4 NEWS
14-year-old Keaundri McBride collapsed and died at Tacoma's Foss High School Tuesday night.
TACOMA - A 14-year-old girl at Tacoma's Foss High School turning out for the basketball team collapsed and died Tuesday night.
Keaundri "Kiki" McBride was 14, happy and athletic. Her friend Germaine Henderson told KOMO 4 News, "she was a funny little girl. Used to play around in the halls. She did her work though; she was cool. Everybody knew her."
The 1,900 students at Foss learned Wednesday of Kiki's death. "Usually our school is very loud," Henderson said. "Today, not a sound. Like a library. The whole school's a library."
Kiki is the third student athlete to die suddenly in the past three years. Merridy Stillwell was running track, completed a mile, and then collapsed and died. Steven Brillhart was playing soccer, sat on the bench, collapsed and died.
All three had passed school physicals.
The two who died earlier had HCM -- Hypertrophic CardioMyopathy.
Gary Nicholson is the trainer at Pacific Lutheran University and a former head trainer with the Chicago Cubs. He also worked for the Seattle Mariners.
"The kids have had a physical," he said. "But it just checks blood pressure and heart rate and the sound of the heart."
He adds the most common cause of sudden collapse is HCM. One in 500 has the gene, but only 1 in 200,000 will die.
The only test for HCM is unreliable, as for each positive it would give a person at risk of collapse and death would be accompanied by 400 false positives. And the test costs hundreds, if not thousands of dollars.
But for the kids at Foss, medical facts fade into the background when reality hits.
Kaza Ayersman said of Kiki, "A really pretty girl that was just amazing. I saw a lot of potential in her. And she was a good basketball player."
Rebecca Coles, another friend, said, "She was about the same age as me. It's like I know now that no one is really immortal. And it's like I could even drop dead this morning."
Tacoma school officials had counselors present at the school Wednesday. The counselors will return on Thursday. No memorial service has yet been scheduled.