Teenager with POTS dies

[Countrygirl]

http://www.tampabay.com/news/public...tion_type_map=["og.shares"]&action_ref_map=[]

With that burning intelligence, Christina became valedictorian of Osceola Fundamental High School and enrolled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In recent weeks, she came home from MIT to recover as she fought a nervous system disorder causing pain and circulatory problems.

On Thursday night, Christina stood high on a parking garage at Tampa International Airport. At 8:17 p.m., she sent a text message: "I love you, mom."

At 8:25 p.m. Christina, 17, was found dead after she apparently jumped from the garage. On the back of a photo of herself and her mother that Christina left behind, the teenager wrote a note expressing regret at the one puzzle she would not solve — her health.

"Sorry," she told her mom, "I couldn't keep fighting."

The death of the popular 2014 Osceola Fundamental High graduate, an MIT student majoring in biomedical engineering, has shocked two communities. At MIT, where Christina was a freshman, students gathered in vigil at her dorm Saturday night. At Christina's home in Seminole, her mother made funeral arrangements for the pretty teenager with a bright smile whose family said hated letting the world see that she was so sick.

 

[Martial]

Thanks for sharing, I was literally just logging in to share this weird coincidence . Extremely tragic and really makes you choke up and tear a lot... R.I.P. Christina, thoughts and love with the family and friends.

 

[Jammy88]

That's so heartbreaking to me. I definitely understand her feelings. RIP Cristina. My condolences to the family.

 

[SOC]

Such a tragedy!

...whose family said hated letting the world see that she was so sick.

We need to put more effort into convincing patients it is not shameful to be sick. Shame and embarrassment take an unnecessary and uncalled-for toll in an already emotionally devastating illness. Our youth seem particularly sensitive to being shamed for being ill. We need to fight that thinking with everything we've got or we're going to lose more and more patients to emotional trauma.

Damn those BPS bastards!

 

[SDSue]

I don't know if this has already been posted, but a beautiful young MIT student suffering from POTS found it too much to bear. Full article here.

SEMINOLE — Christina E. Tournant's family joked when she was growing up that she was wise beyond her years, a precocious kid who could figure out almost anything.

"We always said she was an old soul," said Christina's mother, Tava Wilson. "She just understood things."

With that burning intelligence, Christina became valedictorian of Osceola Fundamental High School and enrolled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In recent weeks, she came home from MIT to recover as she fought a nervous system disorder causing pain and circulatory problems.

I put this in member's only thread. Let's please remember to keep the tone respectful and reverent lest her family or friends be hurt even more deeply.

 

[LisaGoddard]

Really sad. She was so young and beautiful.