FORT COLLINS — With his head bowed and choking back tears, Shannon Gaes stood before the media Tuesday afternoon and asked that the death of his 16-year-old son be told as a cautionary tale.
“This is by far the toughest thing we’ve ever had to do,” he said, struggling through emotion to speak and calling his son “dedicated in everything he did.”
Gaes’ son, Taylor Thomas Gaes, died June 8 of septicemic plague, a fast-moving, rare form of the bacterial infection. It took just four days for the powerful killer to end the life of the promising athlete who was a starting pitcher and first baseman on the Poudre High School team as a sophomore.
He turned 16 the day before his death.
His parents, flanked by county, state and federal health officials, on Tuesday spoke out for what they said would be the final time at a news conference here. The couple asked the public and the media to give them time and space to heal, saying the constant spotlight has left them unable to face their loss.
“We just want to make sure people are aware of the plague,” Shannon Gaes said. “I don’t know what else I can say.”
Septicemic plague accounts for just 15 percent of human plague cases in the United States, an official from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said at the briefing. The CDC is conducting an investigation in Larimer County to analyze the breadth of the disease in the area and destroy any identifiable traces.
Health officials believe Taylor contracted the disease through a flea bite or contact with a dead animal on the family’s property in the rural Cherokee Park area, northwest of Fort Collins.
“We’ll never know when he got bit, where he got bit,” Katie O’Donnell, spokeswoman for the Larimer County Health Department, said Tuesday.
Dr. Jennifer House, a state public health veterinarian for the Colorado Department of Health and Environment, said there have been 63 cases of human plague in Colorado since the state began recording the disease. Of those, only eight cases, including Taylor’s, were fatal.
Larimer County has logged only three human cases of plague in the past 30 years, she said.
“Just be aware,” House said, “it is in our area.”
Health officials say the public should avoid dead animals — specifically rodents — and report any large die-offs to county health departments or the state.
“It’s out there all the time,” said Dr. Ken Gage of the CDC.
A fund in Taylor Gaes’ name has been set up to help children with the costs of playing baseball.
Jesse Paul: 303-954-1733, jpaul@denverpost.com or twitter.com/JesseAPaul
