Popular high school athlete died of infection related to meningitis bacteria

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Popular high school athlete died of infection related to meningitis bacteria

Education
By T. Rees Shapiro and Joey LoMonaco April 10 at 10:08 PM
@TReesShapiro



From left, Broad Run softball teammates Kamille Larrabee, Madison Small and Suzanne Gobstein pose for a photo inside Broad Run's gym. Small died Tuesday morning. (Photo courtesy of Ellie Jessop/Photo courtesy of Ellie Jessop)

A popular Loudoun County high school student and softball player who died mysteriously this week had bacterial meningitis, the school system’s first confirmed case in two years.

Madison Small, 18, was a senior on the Broad Run High School softball team and in perfect health before Monday, when she came down with what friends described as headaches. After going to the hospital, her organs began shutting down, friends said, and Small died Tuesday.

Nancy Bull, an administrator in the northern district of the Virginia medical examiner’s office, said Small died of neisseria sepsis, a blood infection caused by the same bacteria that causes meningitis, a swelling of the tissue lining the brain and spinal cord.
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Loudoun schools spokesman Wayde Byard said students are not required to be vaccinated for meningitis to enroll, and he noted that it is not common for school-age children to receive the inoculation. Byard said the last case in Loudoun was in January 2013.