Cardiac arrhythmia from an enlarged heart killed a 13-year-old Hermitage Middle School student after she collapsed at school on Oct. 22, according to Mercer County Coroner J. Bradley McGonigle III.

Ashley Ann Bryan, of 1957 Pine Hollow Blvd., was pronounced dead at the hospital of Sharon Regional Health System after the eighth-grader had collapsed in the library of the middle school around 8:30 a.m. An autopsy was ordered to determine how the girl died.

The coroner said that her enlarged heart was caused by an infection. "It could've been something as simple as a common cold," he said. McGonigle made the official ruling on her death Nov. 21.

Her parents, the Rev. Gary and Sandy Bryan, had agreed to the autopsy because their daughter did not have any known health problems except for asthma. Ashley's father is the pastor of Shenango Valley Church of God in Hermitage.

Rev. Bryan had said in an earlier story published in The Herald that doctors told him his daughter may have suffered from an infection that caused her heart to swell, although she did not have any prior heart problems.

Ashley was described by Hermitage School Superintendent Karen Ionta as "very, very intelligent," and a "remarkable, wonderful student."