A PEACEFUL PLACE: Gail Myers, left, is joined by her children Matt, 16, and Madison, 8, in Megan's Grove, an area in Laguna Niguel Regional Park dedicated to their daughter Megan, 14, a Dana Hills cross-country runner who collapsed and died during a competition in the park. Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register REMEMBERING MEGANThe Myers family is planning a formal dedication of Megan's Grove in a couple of weeks. For more information, visit www.missmeganmyers.com. A memorial fund was established in Megan's name. Send donations to OCCF/ Megan Myers Memorial Fund c/o Orange County Community Foundation 30 Corporate Park, Suite 410, Irvine, Calif. 92606. For credit card contributions, Call (949) 553-4202. |
Dana Point runner died of inflammed heart muscle
The family of 14-year-old Megan Myers visit Laguna Niguel memorial to the high school freshman, who died during race.
As the morning sun cut through the fog, Jeff and Gail Myers sat on the park bench next to their children, Matt, 16, and Madison, 8.
A runner passed.
Then another.
Birds sang from the line of eucalyptus trees behind the green bench – a new addition to a gently sloped knoll in Laguna Niguel Regional Park.
Seven freshly planted liquidambar trees surround the bench, along with seven boulders taken from a nearby creek bed.
“Isn’t it beautiful here?’’ Jeff Myers said.
Megan Myers, no doubt, would agree with her father.
The tranquil spot was one of the last things Megan saw before she collapsed during a cross-country competition Sept. 26.
A lifelong athlete with no apparent health problems and no symptoms of illness, the freckle-faced teen with the big smile fell unconscious beside her mother, Gail.
Less than an hour later, Megan was pronounced dead. The freshman at Dana Hills High School was 14.
“If you’re going to take your last few steps of life,” Jeff Myers said, “you couldn’t pick a more peaceful spot.’’
The devastation of losing Megan so unexpectedly remains etched on the faces of her parents and siblings.
Last week, as the final touches were being put on the memorial, the coroner determined the official cause of death: multifocal myocarditis, an inflammation of heart muscle.
A preliminary autopsy performed the day after Megan died was inconclusive.
Megan grew up playing soccer and was thrilled to have made the cross-country team.
She told her parents, “I feel like I’m walking on the clouds.”
Megan was about two miles into a three-mile race against runners from Capistrano Valley High School when she fell ill.
She pressed on.
When she reached the knoll, Megan stepped off the road and onto the grass.
Gail Myers rushed to her.
“I feel fortunate that she knew I was there with her," Gail Myers said.
Megan's family and large circle of friends could not understand how a girl who had been athletic most of her life could suddenly die.
Megan had been cleared to run after passing a mandatory physical to participate in high school sports.
Myocarditis is rare, affecting less than one-half of 1 percent of the population, said Dr. Robert Greenfield, a cardiologist at Orange Coast Memorial Medical Center in Fountain Valley.
Greenfield has not seen Megan’s autopsy report but spoke generally about the ailment that killed her.
“Sometimes, the first symptom is death,” Greenfield said.
Typically, the cause of myocarditis is viral, he said – although other possible causes include an allergic reaction to a drug, such as penicillin, something toxic in the environment, or a parasitic infection.
Megan’s parents don’t know what triggered her heart to fail.
They may never know.
They had extensive tests done on Matt and Madison after Megan died. Doctors said the children are in excellent health.
Megan’s parents take some comfort in knowing that myocarditis is relatively rare.
Speculation ran rampant after Megan’s death, with some parents even suggesting that chemical-laden energy drinks may have killed her.
The autopsy report turned up nothing unusual in Megan’s system.
Instead of torturing themselves with what caused Megan’s death, her family is concentrating on how she lived.
The knoll in the park encapsulates Megan, they say: So beautiful. So alive.
Hannah Carmen, of Laguna Niguel, was one of Megan’s best friends. Her father, Bret Carmen, is a landscape architect. He came up with the design of the park memorial the Myers family now calls “Megan’s Grove.’’
The trees were donated and planted by Valley Crest Landscape Development in Cypress.
Park regulations prevented a plaque or other identifiable marker from being installed.
The Myers family is OK with that. What’s important, they say, is the spirit of the place.
By next fall, the leaves on the liquidambars should turn bright red. Against the backdrop of the eucalyptus trees, the contrast should be brilliant, Carmen said.
On Jan. 1, the Myers family will start a new tradition. Every New Year’s Day since Megan was born, they’ve taken pictures of the kids at a park near their home in Dana Point.
This New Year, they’ll take the portrait in Megan’s Grove.
Matt and Madison sat next to each other on the bench, holding hands.
The two quietly watched a runner pass.
“I’ll be coming here for the rest of my life,” Matt said.
Another runner passed.
Then another.
Contact the writer: 949-454-7356 or ghardesty@ocregister.com
