Courtesy photo

Avery Robinson

PENDLETON — Pendleton High School student Avery Robinson died of hemorrhagic pancreatitis, said Don McCown, deputy Anderson County coroner, late Wednesday.

The conclusion came after an autopsy.

The ninth-grader died after surgery Tuesday. Avery, 14, appeared to be a healthy teen shortly before his hospitalization, but his pancreas was bleeding out, McCown said.

“The pancreas failed,” he said. “It bled out and failed. The bleeding would have been uncontrolled. It is a very vascular (full of blood vessels) area.”

McCown said his office plans to conduct numerous biological studies related to the case, but he is labeling the death a natural one. Anderson County Coroner Greg Shore said Tuesday his office was sure the death was not the result of trauma. McCown said Wednesday that the hemorrhage could have been caused by several diseases, although no such diseases had been diagnosed in Avery. He said it could take six to 12 weeks to reach an answer in Avery’s case — maybe.

“We know the cause of death,” McCown said. “We just don’t know what caused the cause. We may never know. You just don’t know what can happen.”

Avery was a wide receiver on the Pendleton High junior varsity football team and practiced shortly before his death. An avid fan of the school’s varsity football team, which his brother Harold played on, Avery attended Riverside Middle School last year.