Irondequoit, N.Y. - Family, friends, and classmates are remembering a teenager who suddenly died from a blood infection.
They gathered at Irondequoit High School Friday afternoon in honor of Tyler Putnam.
"I can't live without Tyler and I don't know how I am," Tyler's cousin Shane Englehart said as he choked back tears. "He was my best friend. We were like brothers."
People hugged and cried as they wrote down messages for Tyler's family.
"I thought it was just the flu," said one of Tyler's friends Alex Sosa. "I saw him the last day, then 12 hours later my friend is gone."
Tyler, 16, died Thursday from meningococcemia according to the Monroe County Health Department.
"The difference is with meningococcal meningitis you basically have an infection with the fluid that surrounds the brain and spinal cord," Dr. Byron Kennedy of the Health Department said. "And with meningococcemia that's an infection you have in the blood."
Kennedy said you have to have prolonged contact with another person to contract the bacteria, which is not transferred just by shaking hands.
"Folks that may be sharing be it cups or water bottles, those are the folks that have the most serious types of contact exposure."
Kennedy said symptoms include a rash, stiff neck, severe headache, and high fever.
He said the bacteria can only last a couple minutes outside the body.
The district says Tyler had not been involved in any organized activites at the school in the last two weeks, and they don't want to cause alarm.
Tyler played hockey for Maksymum Hockey. A statement on Maksymum's website Thursday said, "Tyler's energy and enthusiasm will be greatly missed. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Putnam family."
