How did the cheerleader Patty Phommanyvong die?”
When the news broke that 20-year-old Lauren Chang of Newton, Mass., had died during a cheerleading contest last week, there was one person who was not shocked. Jessica Smith, a 19-year-old Californian, says that’s because it almost happened to her. Chang died on April 14 during a meet in Worcester, Mass., after she was accidentally kicked in the chest while performing a “basket catch” routine. “Lauren died doing what she loved … cheerleading and being with her friends,” her sister, Nancy Chang, told reporters last week. Smith came close to losing her own life after falling 15 feet and landing on her head at a meet in Sacramento, Calif. “I just can’t believe girls are still being injured and girls are dying over cheerleading. If anyone told me cheerleading could be the cause of my death I would never have thought that,” Smith told ABC News. But it almost was. In 2006, Smith was a “flier” for a team at Sacramento City College. Smith was performing a trick that required her to do a handst
