A 17-year-old junior at Winthrop High School in Maine, died shortly after she collapsed from a pulmonary embolism on August 1, the Daily News reported.
The girl was taken to Maine Medical Center in Portland on August 2, the day after she collapsed. Her mother, Kimberly, wrote on Facebook that she underwent surgery to clear up clots in her lungs. The family waited for her to wake up, but she never did.
"I like to think she chose not to wake up again because she chose to stay wherever she is, it must be a far greater place than here...Kelsey loved life, she loved her family and she loved her friends," the post said, according to the Daily News.
A pulmonary embolism happens when a blockage occurs in the main lung artery or one of its branches by a substance that has travelled from another place in the body through the bloodstream. It commonly results from a blood clot in the deep veins of the leg or pelvis, then breaks away and heads to the lungs. Often, more than one risk factor is present, including hormonal birth control pills and cancer.
Stoneton was in the top five of her graduating class and was the captain of the field hockey team at her school. She was the daughter of Winthrop High School's athletic director, Joel Stoneton.
Her father told the Portland Press Herald that she was a pretty girl and she was everything to her parents, bringing smiles to them with her continual happiness.
Jarod Richmond, the school's assistant football coach, told the Portland Press Herald that he opened the school's locker room, where friends can mourn her untimely death.
Stoneton is survived by her parents and a younger sister, Haley. The family didn't take visitors the day after her death, and asked that notes of remembrance be left outside of her father's home in Winthrop.
