Bacterial meningitis case turned into a New Year’s nightmare for Bellingham family

When Keilly Rose Byrd-Purtell’s family realized how sick she was, it may have been too late.

Keilly, a fun-loving and headstrong Bellingham High sophomore, complained of a sore throat in late December, just as the holiday break from classes was beginning. She’d been having some personal challenges and was looking forward to time off from school and hanging out with her boyfriend, friends and family, her relatives told The Bellingham Herald in emails and an interview at their Columbia neighborhood home.

On New Year’s Day, Keilly (pronounced KEE-lee) was found unconscious, having seizures and running a temperature of at least 103 degrees. An ambulance took her to St. Joseph Medical Center, where she was airlifted to Children’s Hospital in Seattle.

Hours later, in the early morning of Jan. 2, she was dead from a combination of meningitis and sepsis that had rapidly overwhelmed her. Officially, her cause of death was iGAS — invasive group A streptococcal disease — along with meningitis, sepsis and streptococcal toxic shock syndrome.

“All three stacked on top of each other. She had no fighting chance and the doctors could not catch up to the progression of what was happening,” her sister, Aleasheia LeBlanc, told The Herald. “We still don’t know how she got it — possibly by sharing vapes. You can just get a very common illness, and it can take your life.”

It started with a typical strep infection, family members were told.

At 16, Keilly was feeling her independence and went to stay with her boyfriend’s family a few days before Christmas. On Dec. 30, she went with her boyfriend to see a doctor, who prescribed antibiotics and wanted to take a blood sample that could have helped with a diagnosis. But Keilly, who was terrified of needles, refused the blood draw. Her family isn’t sure if she ever took the antibiotics. Their first inkling that the situation was serious came when the pharmacy called about Keilly’s prescription.

“’I said, ‘What prescription?’ her mother, Gloria Byrd, said. “Kids want to advocate for themselves. If I would have known the doctor wanted her to give a blood sample, I would have taken her.”

In Washington youth ages 13 and older can make their own medical decisions, and in most cases medical staff aren’t required to seek parental consent for treatment. Was it contagious?

Because some forms of meningitis can be extremely contagious, word of Keilly’s death was a “hot topic” on social media, and a top Whatcom County health official took the unusual step of discussing it in the January meeting of the Public Health Advisory Board.

“It’s been, you know, projected to many different sources, particularly around moms’ groups, social media, other parents’ groups, school groups, and to the local media, and so I’ve prepared a little bit on that in case people have any questions, or have been hearing that buzz,” Dr. Meghan Lelonek told the panel, which advises the Whatcom County Council on health-related matters.

“If you have ever seen meningococcal disease in a teenager, you will never forget it,” Lelonek told the board.

Lelonek couldn’t discuss Keilly’s case directly due to medical privacy laws. She talked in general terms about meningitis and its symptoms to PHAB and in a Zoom interview with The Herald.

“What I want to say is that we have not received any reports of meningococcal disease, which is a notifiable condition. So, if there was invasive meningococcal disease, it needs to be reported to us, ASAP, 24-7,” Lelonek told the board. Symptoms

Strep throat is a common and contagious bacterial infection, with a fairly sudden onset of scratchy throat pain, low-grade fever and headache, according to the Mayo Clinic. Treatment includes antibiotics.

It usually goes away quickly, but it can worsen into iGAS, which is rapidly progressing and possibly dangerous infection that can cause dizziness and confusion, nausea, diarrhea and high fever.

Some of those symptoms are shared with meningitis, which is an inflammation of the brain tissue, according to Ottawa (Canada) Public Health. A stiff neck — when it’s painful to even turn your head — is a sign to call a doctor. Maybe even 911.

When she was healthy, Keilly was only 4 feet, 11 inches tall and weighed just 85 pounds. At the hospital in her final hours, her heart stopped three times, she was intubated, and an earlobe and a finger were showing gangrene. Those are classic signs of severe iGAS, according to the UK Health Security Agency.

“Two of the most severe, but rare, forms of iGAS disease are necrotizing fasciitis and streptococcal toxic shock syndrome. Necrotising fasciitis destroys muscles, fat and skin tissue. Streptococcal toxic shock syndrome causes blood pressure to drop rapidly and organs to fail,” the agency states at its website. Keilly’s legacy

From a very young age, Keilly was a “force of nature,” Gloria said. “(She loved) games, playing — she liked anything that made her little legs move. She loved being outside.”

Surrounded by photos of Keilly and family mementos, Gloria explained how she adopted Keilly and Keilly’s now-17-year-old biological sister as infants after the last of Gloria’s biological children left home. Keilly also leaves two sisters and a brother, Gloria’s biological children. Theirs was a large extended family, with cousins who got along famously and sometimes ran circles around the grown-ups, Aleasheia said.

“Keilly was five kids all at once,” like a combination of all her children.

“She was the last of them. That’s what hurts so bad,” Gloria said.

More than 150 of Keilly’s classmates, friends and relatives attended her funeral, Gloria said.

A discontinued fundraiser paid for her funeral, and there’s a separate *Spotfund campaign for a memorial. The Keilly Rose Love, Legacy & Awareness has been established as a registered Washington nonprofit foundation.

“What began as a mission to share Keilly’s story has grown into a formal organization focused on education, prevention and support for families who are impacted by sudden and life-threatening infections like iGAS,” Aleasheia said. “We have also launched our official Facebook page and online donation platform to support awareness materials, community outreach, memorial events, and future family support efforts in Keilly’s honor.”

They know that meningitis is rare, and that Keilly’s illness couldn’t have been prevented, but they hope that knowledge gained from her death might help save someone’s life.

“Most of all, I want her death to open the eyes of parents about vaccinations and significant illnesses,” Gloria said.