AKRON, Ohio – A 14-year-old Akron girl who was injured in a sleigh accident died days after her father died of a heart attack while trying to visit her daughter at the hospital, the girl’s mother posted on Facebook.
Eirelyn Zuercher was hospitalized at MetroHealth Medical Center on Saturday after the sleigh incident at the Cleveland Metroparks Hinckley reserve in Medina County, according to her mother, Katie Dougherty Zuercher. When they arrived at the hospital, Eirelyn’s father, Jared, suffered a severe heart attack and died.
Eirelyn suffered a “damaging brain injury” and was removed from the life support device on Wednesday, her mother said. She was an organ donor and helped save five people.
Before Eirelyn was removed from life support, Dougherty Zuercher wrote: “Her father went to heaven just before her, just as he made it to the finish line first in every Mario Kart game they have ever played together. She used to wait on the front porch for him to come home to greet him with the biggest hug before he could even enter the house. I imagine that he is waiting for her now with the same anxious expectation. “
In a statement to cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer, Dougherty Zuercher said: “I am very grateful for the support I have received since the tragic accident. The MetroHealth and Lifebanc team kindly carried my family through some of the most difficult hours of our lives. It is a gift to know that my daughter’s generous spirit will continue throughout the life of organ donor recipients. “
Eirelyn was a student at the Spring Garden Waldorf School in Copley and had been accepted to St. Vincent-St. Mary High School – your mother’s alma mater.
Spring Garden Waldorf School issued a statement saying, in part: “Our community has suffered a tremendous loss. Eirelyn was a deeply kind and loving person, an incredible older sister, a talented artist and an esteemed student at our school. “
The college issued the following statement: “The St. Vincent-St. The Mary community offers our deepest condolences to the Zuercher / Dougherty family for the loss of Eirelyn VM25 and her father Jared. We ask our community to raise the family in prayer, especially wife and mother Katie and younger sister Noella, as they seek God’s comfort and peace during this time. Eirelyn was a newly accepted member of the 2025 STVM Class and participated in the STVM Drama Camp, following in the footsteps of her mother Katie Dougherty Zuercher VM02. Eirelyn’s memory and spirit will forever remain in the hearts of her colleagues at VM25, as well as in our teachers, students and alumni. We pray that all STVM support will be felt now and forever. “