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Shop NowThe tragic death of Air Force Academy cadet Avery Koonce should have been prevented. The 19-year-old from Tyler, Texas was discovered deceased in her bunk on September 4 at the training academy in Colorado. An independent autopsy report released a month later confirms her cause of death as untreated Pneumonia. There isn’t a single word of information from the Pentagon as to why she wasn’t in the infirmary. The real story behind her death is apparently just breaking.
Death of cadet preventable
Air Force Academy cadet Avery Koonce should still be alive. She would be if her training instructors did their jobs properly. Without any details at all available, it’s way too soon to start pointing fingers.
The El Paso County Coroner’s Office report only indicates that somebody, probably more than one somebody, failed horribly.
Doctors like to use fancy Latin words to keep the general public guessing, so the official autopsy report declares Cadet Koonce died as the result of “paeniclostridium sordelli sepsis complicating parainfluenza laryngotraceobronchitis.”
It’s as horrible as it sounds but isn’t all that unfamiliar to most people. Pneumonia is a fairly common illness, easily treated. Hers wasn’t.
“In essence,” forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden explains after reviewing the report, “she died of untreated pneumonia.” The sepsis, which means blood poisoning, was attributed to paeniclostridium sordelli. That’s a “relatively rare but potentially fatal anaerobic bacteria.” It was fatal to Cadet Koonce.
The same bacteria is “associated with a toxic shock-like syndrome that can rapidly progress to death.” She wouldn’t have had it if the “parainfluenza,” meaning something like the flu or the “viral lung infection” which it caused, had been treated. Penicillin would have done the trick.
Could have been treated
Baden picked up his credentials as former chief medical examiner for New York City. He points out the bacteria “could have been treated with penicillin.” The virus, meanwhile, “could have been addressed with fluids and antibodies.”
Her squad members must have seen her coughing and wheezing. Her drill sargent should have seen that, too. Even if the cadet shrugged it off as “just a cold” she should have been ordered into the infirmary for a checkup.
Apparently, Cadet Koonce had been showing worsening symptoms for some time before her death. It would be nearly impossible for her not be obviously incapacitated long before total systemic collapse.
“She first had the viral infection that diminished her immunity, so the bacteria were able to flourish,” Dr. Baden informs. Also he checked to be sure that her death was not related to any “preexisting abnormality.”
Ms. Koonce was in top physical shape as a freshman in the Academy’s Class of 2028 and “an athlete on its Women’s Track and Field team.” In the days before Koonce passed away, “she likely would have shown symptoms, such as coughing, fever and difficulty breathing.”
She wasn’t stationed all by herself in some Arctic outpost so there’s no excuse for her to be left dying alone in her dorm room. Her parents are devastated. “Our daughter Cadet Avery Koonce was an incredible bright light in this broken world,” they expressed to the public. “Our lives will forever be diminished because of her absence.“
