Revelation 6:7,8 NCV When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, "Come!"8 I looked, and there before me was a pale horse. Its rider was named death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill people by war, by starvation, by disease, and by the wild animals of the earth.
A rare strain of the plague has killed a 16-year-old Colorado athlete.
Taylor Gaes was a star athlete for Poudre High School. Taylor, who was 6 foot, 4 inches, was already being considered an excellent college baseball prospect and was being scouted by schools when he fell ill.
He died June 8th, a day after his 16th birthday from a sudden illness. Friends thought it was just a bad case of the flu. He woke up that morning and told his parents he coughed up blood. The family tried to rush him to the hospital but he died five minutes before arriving.
That’s when doctors discovered the real cause of death was septicemic plague. It is the rarest of three forms of the plague and happens when bacteria directly enters the bloodstream. It is highly fatal.
Health officials are speculating that Taylor contracted the disease from fleas on a dead rodent or other animal on his family’s farm.
Now the Larimer County Health Department is warning all those who attended Taylor’s memorial on the ranch to be vigilant for any changes in their health.
“There is a small chance that others might have been bitten by infected fleas, so anyone who was on the family’s land in the last 7 days should seek medical attention immediately if a fever occurs,” the agency said.
Gaes was the first resident of the area to contract the disease since 1999 although a visitor to the region in 2004 caught it while camping.
