INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- The mother of a Kansas teenager who died while attending the FFA national convention in Indianapolis says her daughter had contracted swine flu.
Shelly Merklein of Kiowa, Kan., says her 14-year-old daughter Lauren also had a preexisting heart condition. Merklein says Lauren collapsed in a hotel room on Friday, but wasn't seriously ill until developing a fever a day later.
Lauren died Sunday at Riley Hospital for Children.
She was a freshman at South Barber High School in the town about 75 miles southwest of Wichita. District Superintendent Brad Morris says none of the school's other students became ill while at the agriculture education convention.
(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
