ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, January 20, 1996 TAG: 9601210006
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY STAFF WRITER
An 18-year-old cadet at Virginia Military Institute died Friday afternoon from a blood infection caused by the bacteria that also causes meningitis.
Scott Hickey of Staunton went into cardiac arrest just after a helicopter transporting him to the University of Virginia Medical Center had lifted off from Stonewall Jackson Hospital in Lexington. He was returned to Stonewall Jackson where he died at about 2 p.m., said a VMI spokesman.
Hickey had been given Tylenol for flulike symptoms, including a 100-degree temperature, Thursday night at the VMI hospital. He returned to his barracks for the night, but was back at the school's hospital before 8 a.m. Friday and saw the school's physician, Dr. David Copeland.
Copeland sent Hickey to the emergency room at Stonewall Jackson, where he was treated with antibiotics. His condition got worse, though, and it was decided to send him to the UVa hospital.
Hickey died because the bacteria, Neissera meningitides, released toxins in his blood that caused the vessels to break down, Copeland said. The condition is called sepsis.
The bacteria that caused Hickey's death is fairly common and lives in the nose of 10 percent to 15 percent of the population, Copeland said.
Copeland said it is only the second case he has seen in the 10 years he has been in the Lexington area. A couple of years ago, a Washington and Lee University student had the same kind of blood infection, but lived, he said.
The blood infection, which usually shows up during the flu season, is more difficult to diagnose even than meningitis, which usually causes head and neck ache, Copeland said.
The incubation period for the bacteria is one to 10 days.
The school postponed its home basketball game with Davidson College that was scheduled for today. It also recommended that anyone who had been around Hickey for three or four hours take the antibiotic Rifampin as a precaution. About 25 cadets took the medicine.
The students just came back from the holiday break Monday. VMI officials said that persons who were in close contact with Hickey for the five to seven days before he returned to school are being contacted.
Hickey, a 1995 graduate of Buffalo Gap High School, was majoring in civil engineering and served as a manager for the Keydet football team this past fall. His parents are Mr. and Mrs. David R. Hickey of Staunton; his father is a 1974 graduate of VMI.
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