Funeral Saturday for high school cross country runner
By
Posted 11:31AM on Saturday, August 31, 2002
DECATUR - The DeKalb County high school student who collapsed and died after completing a 5-kilometer cross country race will be laid to rest Saturday. <br>
<br>
Sixteen-year-old Shai Lauren Owens -- who was a junior at Cedar Grove High School -- was rushed to a hospital Tuesday and pronounced dead two hours later. <br>
<br>
Owners died of complications resulting from an abnormal heart valve. <br>
<br>
Marian Huhman, the mother of a Dunwoody High School runner and a trained nurse, came to Owens' aid after she collapsed. She said several of Owens' teammates checked to see if the girl was all right. <br>
<br>
Huhman said she and Doctor Doug Hamilton, a CDC epidemiologist who is the father of another Dunwoody High athlete, began performing CPR. <br>
<br>
DeKalb school policy requires students' parents to sign permission forms that ask about pre-existing medical conditions. <br>
<br>
Huhman said the cross country race was over, and the girl had finished the 3.1-mile race when she collapsed. The race at Shamrock Middle School was the first of the season run by any DeKalb public school.