SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio -- A student at the center of a Brush High School controversy died suddenly Monday morning, apparently from bacterial meningitis.

Video

Boy Remembered

MENINGITIS Meningitis: What Is It? | FAQS Link: National Meningitis Association SYMPTOMS High fever Headache Stiff neck Nausea/Vomiting Sleepiness Confusion Source: Centers For Disease Control And Prevention

NewsChannel5's Tracy Carloss reported that family and friends described Eric Russell as a popular, bright student who had a promising future.

Russell, 17, was a National Achievement scholar and a star athlete who touched the lives of many, according to those who knew him.

"He was always full of jokes, smiling -- he just wanted to make everyone around him happy," said Eric Mitchell, Russell's football coach.

A controversy ensued last year when Russell was identified in the school's yearbook as "Blacky." Those close to Russell said that while the incident upset him, he did not hold a grudge.

His family said that he spent the past year getting involved with Project Love, a program to foster unity, respect, and understanding among students.

School officials said that counselors have been made available to help students with their grief.

The high school senior had not been feeling well and was taken to the hospital on Sunday, The Plain Dealer reported. He was sent home Sunday, but his mother took him back there early Monday morning, and he died a few hours later.

Preliminary tests showed Russell died of bacterial meningitis, a massive blood infection. Bacterial meningitis, or meningococcal disease, is a serious infection that can attack the brain, according to doctors.

Bacterial meningitis is the most serious form of the disease and is fatal in about 10 to 15 percent of the cases.

Cuyahoga County health officials spent the day at Brush to make sure everyone who came in direct contact with Russell in the last two weeks received antibiotics.

Bacterial meningitis can be fatal before a person even knows for sure that he or she has it. That's why health officials said it's important to get treatment quickly if you have had direct contact with someone who has it.

Health officials played it safe and passed out antibiotics before they could even confirm that Russell actually died from meningitis.

"It's a shame that you have to do that before you really know what you have," Cuyahoga County Health Commissioner Tim Horgan said. "It does frighten people, but that (is) what we do."

Horgan said that officials still need to do further testing to determine for sure whether Russell died from bacterial meningitis, because test results aren't yet conclusive.

School officials said that parents will receive letters informing them of the test results.

Russell may not have gotten the illness from someone else. Officials said that many people carry the organism in their bodies, and sometimes -- for some unknown reason -- it grows and makes them sick.

"(It) happens in a community (like) Cleveland three to six, seven times a year," Horgan said. "(The cases are) always tragic. You jump on it very quickly so it doesn't spread around, but the organism itself is rather common."

Symptoms of meningitis include high fever, vomiting, headache, and stiff neck. If you or your children have these symptoms, you should go to a doctor immediately, because the symptoms will get progressively worse very quickly.

Once the symptoms start getting worse, you may have only hours before you can be treated successfully with antibiotics.