Girl, 13, Dies Days After ATV Pinned Her and Her Sister, 16, Under the Vehicle in Father’s Day Rollover Crash

Both Arizona sisters were hospitalized, but while the eldest recovered and left the hospital, the younger one died nearly two weeks later

NEED TO KNOW

• Myah Dennis, 13, died nearly two weeks after an ATV crash
• Myah was riding on a quad driven by her 16-year-old sister, Kaitlyn, on June 21 when it flipped after hitting a large rut
• The all-terrain vehicle pinned Myah “across her chest, leaving her unable to breathe and depriving her brain of oxygen for far too long,” per a GoFundMe launched for the family

A teenage girl in Arizona died nearly two weeks after she and her sister got pinned under an ATV following a rollover crash on Father’s Day.

Myah Dennis, 13, died July 3 — 12 days after being hospitalized and put on a ventilator following the June 21 crash — her family told local outlet AZ Family and on a verified GoFundMe.

Her family also told AZ Family she had been riding in the back of an ATV driven by her 16-year-old sister, Kaitlyn, when the ATV flipped over after hitting a large rut. Both girls had been wearing helmets, but the ATV pinned them both to the ground. 

The vehicle specifically pinned Myah “across her chest, leaving her unable to breathe and depriving her brain of oxygen for far too long,” according to the GoFundMe description. At the same time, Kaitlyn had been attempting to call emergency dispatchers for help.

“My phone wasn’t working. It was really hot and overheating,” Kaitlyn recalled to AZ Family. [Myah’s] phone finally worked and I was talking to the dispatcher and they still couldn’t find us.”

Myah’s stepfather, James McClure, told the outlet that he received an alert of the crash on the Life360 app and he and the girls’ mother, Nicole McClure, immediately headed to the site. He said Kaitlyn’s boyfriend, James, arrived there first and “threw the quad off of them.”

“I saw Myah. She already turned blue in the face. I checked for her heart rate and breathing — she had none. I started CPR,” James told AZ Family. 

Emergency Medical Services (EMS) arrived shortly after and Myah was airlifted to a local hospital before being flown to a Las Vegas hospital to receive further treatment, per AZ Family and the GoFundMe.

While Kaitlyn was also treated and released from the hospital, her 13-year-old sister remained hospitalized. Myah never recovered and her family decided on July 3 to take her off life support, according to AZ Family. 

She became an organ donor, and she was given an Honor Walk with family, friends and staff lining the halls to honor her as she was transported through the hospital one last time, AZ Family reported.

“Everybody showed up. She was hopefully in spirit there and shown how loved she actually was,” her mother told the outlet.

In the GoFundMe, Myah was remembered as “a beautiful soul who loved deeply and brought joy to everyone around her.” Her family said she was “strong, determined, incredibly shy and full of the most purest love,” and even “had a way of making everyone around her smile without even trying.”

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Nicole told AZ Family that there was a paid version of the Life360 app that they recommended for parents that alerts emergency dispatchers when a crash is detected, and they wanted to share Myah’s story to warn parents of the dangers of ATVs.

“If I would’ve been out there with my daughter, I wouldn’t have been able to pick up that quad at all. It’s so heavy,” Nicole said. I don’t think there’s enough information out there for other families to realize how easily those quads flip.”