Loss of Beloved FIRST Family Member

[ChuckDickerson]

Dear FIRST Community,

It is with great sadness and a heavy heart that I must relay news of the loss of a beloved member of our FIRST family. Kimberly Melton, a beautiful, bright, caring, loving, and vibrant member of FRC Team 456 passed away yesterday, September 15th, 2012 just before 5:00 PM. Ironically at approximately 4:56PM. Kimmy will be forever loved and missed. She was an 18 year old senior at Warren Central High School in Vicksburg, MS. She aspired to be an engineer and dreamed of working for NASA.

Kimmy was active in many, many activities in our local community, her school, her church, the theatre, and of course our robotics team. Her loving and caring attitude toward anyone and everyone was her most memorable trait. She never met a stranger. She seemed to have an endless supply of hugs for everyone and no matter how bad your day was she always had a way of brightening it up. She would do anything to help anyone.

Many of you were touched by Kimmy whether you know her name or not. She volunteered for many years at many FIRST competitions including Bayou, Dallas, and Championships and MS FLL State Championships. She was well known in the Mississippi and Louisiana FIRST Community. If you have competed in Bayou in the last 4 or 5 years, Dallas in 2010 or Dallas West 2012, Championships in Atlanta or St. Louis in the last few years you benefited from Kimmy’s volunteering so that you could have a rewarding experience. Wherever our team went to competition she volunteered for field support rather than just supporting our team. And although our team hasn’t competed at Championships since 2007 she has been there on her own always volunteering and soaking up the FIRST Championship experience in her own selfless way. I believe she worked on Galileo field in 2011 and I know she was on Archimedes in 2012. I believe she mostly worked on Curie and Archimedes in the last couple of years in Atlanta but I’m not certain. I just can’t remember what Championship fields she worked in Atlanta the last few years right now. She also loved working with the FLL students at the MS State FLL Championship Tournament each December as well.

Kimmy’s father, Eddie Melton, is also a mentor on FRC Team 456 and has been since 2006. He has also volunteered for more competitions than I can remember serving as a Judge, Robot Inspector, and FTAA. Kimmy’s mother, Amy Melton, has also volunteered at Bayou for many years in various capacities. Amy has served as my Robot Inspection Manager for the last several years and I would not know what to do without her. The entire Melton family IS a FIRST family and has always given more than their fare share to the FIRST community.

Kimmy accidentally took too much of a common, over the counter cold medication this past Wednesday night. That in itself wasn’t the issue. However, she vomited in her sleep while lying on her back and since she was in too deep of a sleep due to the cold medicine she aspirated her own vomit and her airway was blocked. Her father Eddie found her about 9:30AM Thursday morning when he discovered she wasn’t up and gone to school as she should have been. We estimate her brain was without sufficient oxygen for a minimum of 6 to 8 hours. Kimmy was unconscious when discovered and never regained consciousness. We lost Kimmy as we knew her sometime during the night Wednesday or Thursday morning. It was just a matter of time for her body to catch up. Due to aspirating the stomach acids she suffered chemical burns in her lungs. This rapidly led to sepsis and a blood infection. Eddie and Amy, knowing Kimmy’s loving, caring, and generous nature, offered her organs for donation. Unfortunately, due to the spread of the infection her organs were not medically suitable for donation.

Kimmy lived a wonderful, vibrant, caring and carefree life. She was an inspiration to all. Many will question the reason for releasing the details of her death but we do so in hopes that it will serve as a warning to others. Safety goes beyond wearing your safety glasses, lifting correctly, using tools properly and not cutting your fingers off. Our message to all is to think carefully and read and follow the dosage correctly even with those seemingly harmless over the counter medications. I know I have personally taken “more than directed” with the thought that if “one pill is good, two must be better right”? Please, consider the potential consequences of that idea all the way through and follow all dosage instructions properly.

Let me be perfectly clear, there is no reason to think Kimmy’s death was anything other than a horrible, tragic accident. Since Kimmy never regained consciousness we could not ask her so I suppose we will never know 100% for sure but we know Kimmy. If she had any reason to want to hurt herself there were other means available and the number of pills she took was not consistent with someone wanting to take their own life. We believe she just took too much cold medicine, which caused her to sleep too hard, she vomited in her sleep, aspirated her own vomit which blocked her airway, and her brain didn’t have sufficient oxygen for far too long. People will talk and rumors will circulate but I can assure you if we had any reason to believe this is anything other than an accident we would embrace that and use that to serve as a further warning to others as well.

The last few days have been, quite frankly, horrible. Words cannot convey the tragedy, the sorrow, and the pain, that Eddie, Amy, Kim’s sister Meghan, our team, and Kim’s classmates, and other family and friends are suffering right now and will continue to suffer in the coming days, weeks, and months. Kim touched so many lives. We are all supporting each other and will get through it. Obviously, please keep us all in your thoughts and prayers especially Eddie and Amy and the rest of Kimmy’s family. But more over, please, in the true spirit of Kimmy, join us as we endeavor to turn this horror into something positive no matter how small that may be, and let this tragic accident serve as a warning to others.

Sincerely,
Chuck Dickerson
Lead Mentor, FRC Team 456