The life of Avery Koonce, a 19-year-old standout athlete and a U.S. Air Force Academy (USAFA) cadet, was cut short due to untreated bacteria in her lungs.\n

The lifeless body of Koonce was found inside her dorm and despite the efforts of the paramedics to revive her, there was nothing they could do, Air Force officials reported. She was discovered by fellow cadets, who called the emergency services.\n

Prior to graduating from Thrall ISD, Koonce was awarded the Congressional Nomination for the academy by U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Waco, on March 27. She was an outstanding student who competed in cross country, powerlifting and track and field. Koonce was also a distinguished cheerleader.\n

\"\" — United States Air Force Academy\n\n
Following her tragic passing, it was determined by the El Paso County Coroner\u2019s Office\u00a0that Koonce died of complications from pneumonia.\n
As per the coroner\u2019s report obtained by \u00a0People,\u00a0the 19-year-old had anaerobic\u00a0bacteria called Paeniclostridium sordellii, which is relatively rare but can be fatal. This bacteria caused sepsis and complicated an underlying, acute viral lower respiratory tract infection. As per reports, Koonce had been suffering from bad cough the days prior to her passing but she was probably unaware of the severity of her illness and failed to seek medical attention.\n
According to the coroner\u2019s office, the bacteria that claimed the life of the Air Force Academy freshman \u201ccan cause serious disease or death in various clinical settings including airway infection.\u201d\n
*\u201cIn essence, she died of untreated pneumonia,\u201d forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden told\u00a0IBT.\n*
Koonce\u2019s parents and family have been deeply affected by her tragic and untimely passing. \u201cOur daughter, Cadet Avery Koonce, was an incredibly bright light in this broken world,\u201d they said in a statement released through the Academy. \u201cOur lives will forever be diminished because of her absence.\u201d\n
On September 12, members of Koonce\u2019s community held a memorial service at Tiger Stadium in Thrall in her honor. The service was attended by over 100 people who came to pay their tributes to the aspiring young woman who was taken too soon.\n
Lt. Gen. Tony Bauernfeind, USAFA Superintendent highlighted Koonce\u2019s profound impact on her squadron, track team, and class, despite her brief time at the academy, saying, \u201cWe lost an incredible teammate.\u201d\n
*We are deeply saddened by the loss of such a young life. May she rest in peace.\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"*
The life of Avery Koonce, a 19-year-old standout athlete and a U.S. Air Force Academy (USAFA) cadet, was cut short due to untreated bacteria in her lungs. The lifeless body of Koonce was found inside her dorm and despite the efforts of the paramedics to revive her, there was nothing they could do, Air Force …\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":85074,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[670],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85073"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85073\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85076,"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85073\/revisions\/85076"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

Following her tragic passing, it was determined by the El Paso County Coroner\u2019s Office\u00a0that Koonce died of complications from pneumonia.\n