Terribly sad story from Florida

Cody Shrout, a 12-year-old 6th-grader who lived in Daytona Beach, Fla., was found dead in bed a week ago today by his 8-year-old sister.

His death was initially put down to chickenpox, which was circulating in his school, but the Volusia County medical examiner determined Tuesday that his death was due to MRSA.

Two weeks ago, he scraped his knee skateboarding, subsequently spiked a 103+ degree fever, was treated at a local ER and sent home. The story describing his treatment quotes his grandfather in a way that suggests the scrape was treated as a sports injury, with ice and ibuprofen.

Cody lived with his mother, sister, 3-year-old brother and grandfather. His mother, who is single, could not afford a funeral. With extraordinary generosity, Heather and Jason Jenkins, who own a plumbing business in Apopka, Fla., have paid for the funeral. He will be buried Tuesday.

An odd tidbit in this very sad story: Ten months ago, according to the Daytona Beach News-Journal, he was treated at that same medical center for a staph infection. The story doesn’t say whether he was an admitted patient or seen in the ER, and also doesn’t say whether it was MRSA or drug-susceptible staph. Interesting, though.

Maryn

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