STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

Such a sad story. I'm not sure how much national attention it got.

http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=502242
According to a family attorney, Abigail Taylor passed away Thursday night at a hospital Omaha.

Robert Bennett, the attorney for the Taylor family confirmed Abigail's death to KARE 11.

Bennett said Abigail's parents were with her when she died at Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.

"The world's less better off without Abigail Taylor," Bennett said.

Abigail, of Edina, was injured June 29 when she sat on a wading pool drain at the Minneapolis Golf Club in St. Louis Park and its powerful suction ripped out part of her intestinal tract.

The six-year-old had been hospitalized in Omaha since December, where she received a triple-organ transplant in an attempt to repair the damage from the accident.

She had suffered a series of setbacks, including 16 surgical procedures, said her father, Scott Taylor.

In early March, she began chemotherapy after doctors concluded that she had likely developed a cancerous condition that is triggered on rare occasions by organ transplants.

"She had some amazing fight in her," said Rick Sansted, prinicpal of Edina's Concord Elementary where Abigail was a first grader. "We're just a sad community today."

After she was injured, her parents, Scott and Katey Taylor, campaigned for legislation that could help prevent similar accidents. In December, Congress approved legislation to ban the manufacture, sale or distribution of drain covers that don't meet anti-entrapment safety standards.

The legislation, the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act, is named for another victim, the 7-year-old granddaughter of former Secretary of State James Baker. She drowned at a graduation party in 2002, when the suction from a drain pinned her.

U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar worked with the Taylors for passage of the bill. "When you think of what her parents are going through today you can't even imagine," she said, "yet this may be just a little bit of solace to them that she made a difference."

Minnesota lawmakers are also considering new pool safety regulations.

Sen. Geoff Michel, who is pushing new pool safety regulations at the state level, called the Taylor's "a very amazing family" after he learned of Abigail's injury.

"They have held up and been held up for such a tough, tough road. I just feel terrible for them," he said