Stage-collapse victim to be organ donor

Associated Press

INDIANAPOLIS

The family of a 24-year-old cheerleading coach from Ohio who suffered serious head injuries when a stage at the Indiana State Fair collapsed in high winds earlier this month said she is “no longer with us” and will undergo organ donation surgery.

Meagan Toothman’s family said in a Web journal that the surgery “will provide gifts of sight, health and life to dozens who are in need.” Doctors put Toothman into a coma Aug. 15 to try to ease the bruising and swelling on her brain.

“Late last night, it became apparent that our Meagan was no longer with us,” the family wrote. “The decision was made to allow to her to be at peace.”

Marion County coroner’s office spokeswoman Marchele Hall said Monday afternoon that Toothman, the head cheerleading coach at Turpin High School in Cincinnati, remained on life support at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis. Authorities earlier announced she had died late Sunday.

“The outpouring of love and hope ... was an inspiration to all of us to keep her fighting,” her family said. “We hope that she will continue to touch more lives in the same way through her passing.”

Strong winds toppled a stage onto a crowd of fans Aug. 13 as they waited for country band Sugarland to perform. Three fans and a security guard died at the scene, while a fourth fan and a stagehand later died of their injuries. Toothman will be the seventh fatality in the accident. Some four dozen people were hurt, many seriously.

It was not known Monday how many of those injured in the stage collapse remained hospitalized. State police stopped providing updates on the injured last week, and hospitals have not provided reports on the condition of those injured.

Roeland Polet, whose wife and two daughters had attended the concert with Toothman, told The Associated Press that Toothman’s death would be yet another tragedy for their family.

His wife, Jill Polet, and their older daughter, Jaymie Polet, were both injured in the collapse and remain hospitalized but their younger daughter, Jordan, escaped injury.

“It’s horrible. It is devastating for my family. For my daughter, she was like a big sister. They were extremely close,” Polet said of his daughter, Jaymie, and Toothman.

He said both Jill and Jaymie, who are in separate hospitals in Indianapolis, are “in very rough shape.” He said it’s unclear when they will be released, and both suffered multiple fractures.

Jaymie had been a cheerleader at Turpin High School and had planned to try out for cheerleader at Indiana University, where she’s enrolled for this fall. Polet said IU officials came to the hospital Sunday with T-shirts and banners for her.