PORT ANGELES — A heart attack claimed the life of the athletic Port Angeles High School junior who died while running in February, an autopsy concluded.
Nick Wright, 17, was training for the upcoming lacrosse and cross country seasons when he collapsed and could not be revived Feb. 17.
He showed no signs of heart problems in the past, his father said in an e-mail to the Peninsula Daily News, even if they had existed since he was born.
“Yes, we know now Nick had been having small heart-scarring attacks for awhile,” wrote Victor Wright.
“As it was explained to me, he may have only thought the attacks were momentary indigestion.”
Nick Wright was known as a friendly, thoughtful and happy teenager who ran several miles a day.
Victor Wright said there are no known heart defects on either side of his son’s family tree, and that one could have only been discovered with his son through extensive testing.
Like ‘being hit by lightening’
An Olympic Medical Center cardiologist, Dr. Kara Urnes, agreed that there was likely nothing that could have been done to discover the problem, short of the heart attack that claimed his life.
“It’s really like someone being hit by lightening,” she said. “You couldn’t have predicted that it was that person at that time.”
Urnes, who did not participate in the autopsy, said Nick Wright likely had a genetic heart defect since he was young and was otherwise healthy.
Despite his running routine, she said he was not doing anything “extreme” for his age.
“I would not go down the line that physical activity caused this problem,” Urnes said.
“I think that he had some sort of genetic or other abnormality of his heart rhythm system.”
That is typical, she said, of teenagers who have heart attacks.
For Victor Wright, his son’s death exposed more than just a heart defect.
“Discovering Nick was a young man with an old man’s heart has taught us just how much heart he really had,” he wrote in the e-mail.
Nick Wright was buried at Ocean View Cemetery on Feb. 25.
In addition to his father, he is survived by his mother, Usanus Wright; his sisters, Irene and Maggie Wright; paternal grandmother, Joyce Wright of Edmonds; his maternal grandparents in Bangkok, Thailand, and numerous aunts and uncles.
Donations can be made to the Nicholas Wright Memorial Fund at any First Federal Savings & Loan location to benefit the North Olympic Mountaineers Youth Lacrosse club under Savings Account No. 0320000635.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsula dailynews.com.