Search Here

Twelve-year-old Chrissy Gabriel's parents thought that she had a case of pink eye. They gave her some eye drops and sent her to bed.

She was unable to be awoken the next morning. On Saturday morning, Chrissy was rushed to the Good Samaritan Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Still, Newsday reports, even if her parents had known the symptoms of the disease that killed her, they may not even caught it in time.

New York adolescent Chrissy Gabriel died of bacterial meningitis, but she did not display any of the classic signs of the disease. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, symptoms include fever, headache, stiff neck, nausea, vomiting, increased sensitivity to light and an altered mental status.

"It's really sad, sad," her father, Kesler Gabriel, said to CBS Local. "She loves children, and she was my lovely daughter."

Bacterial meningitis is quite rare, and health officials are not yet sure how or where the adolescent contracted the disease, which has not been spotted in the county for several years. Across the nation, 4,100 cases of bacterial meningitis, which included 500 deaths, occurred between the years 2003 and 2007.

Sometimes, as in Chrissy's case, the disease advances quite rapidly, leaving no significant signs.

Bacterial meningitis is spread through close contact, like through kissing or sharing utensils, so people who would have had casual contact with the sixth-grader do not need to worry. It is not as contagious as a cold or a flu. According to NBC New York, the seven-day period of contagious exposure ended Friday.

Already, county health officials have already contacted the 33 individuals who are considered at risk for the disease. Because there is such a limited window to diagnose and treat the illness, all 33 people are already on a round of antibiotics as a precaution, despite the fact that officials do not know if any of them actually have the disease.

Parents of other students in the school were notified through an alert system.

Chrissy's parochial school had a vacation last Thursday and Friday, and their break lasts throughout the week. When the school opens next week, administrators say that they will have grief counselors on the premises.