Stephen's Story

Stephens Cause of Death

As some of you may know we finally received Stephen's amended death certificate with his cause of death listed. Rand Middleton published the following article in his notebook in yesterday's West Central Tribune;

Stephen Reynolds’s death linked to virus
Here is news on the unexpected death on Nov. 29 of Stephen James Reynolds, 20, a three-sport athlete at Willmar High School who was attending Ridgewater College:

Mike Reynolds informed me that his son died of a viral heart infection. Dr. Robert Boyd II, at ACMC, “Determined that Stephen passed away from Viral Myocarditis.

“According to Dr. Boyd, he contracted a virus that the majority of us would just get over, but this one, for some reason, attacked his heart and disrupted the electrical function of the heart which causes sudden death” by cardiac arrest.

Knowing this does nothing to ease the profound hurt, Mike concedes, but at least there is closure to what caused the tragic loss and “We know he did not suffer or have pain. He died peacefully in his sleep.”

This explains it pretty well and like I stated it still does not bring Stephen back but it does give us some closure to the matter. Our family was troubled with the initial findings because they did not make sense. We visited with some medical professionals who also agreed that the original findings did not add up. However, the Medical Examiners did run one final test that did take 6 weeks to get the results back. We are grateful that they did as well as knowing Stephen did not suffer at all.

There is not a moment we don't think about him and his smile and we will continue to keep his memory alive.

Number 7 will live forever in our hearts!