Parents Are Mystified by Son’s Death : Health: Mild flu symptoms didn’t seem severe enough to take the life of Mikey Vogler, 6.

COSTA MESA — Fred and Kym Vogler had no clue their son Mikey was so sick.

The 6-year-old came down with a dry cough and low-grade fever Christmas Eve. Figuring their son had a touch of the flu, his parents gave him children’s Tylenol and cough syrup. On Christmas Day, they kept an eye on him as he opened his presents, played a few hours, watched a movie and went to bed at 9 p.m.

By the next morning, he was dead. His 5-year-old sister found him lying on his bedroom floor Tuesday about 7:30 a.m., cold to the touch. She laid a blanket over him and called her parents.

Desperate efforts by his father and a family friend to revive him came too late. “We couldn’t get a pulse at all, ever,” said Fred Vogler, 29, a restaurant manager.

Vogler guesses his son died sometime in the middle of the night. The question is why. How could what seemed to be an ordinary bout with the flu turn fatal so fast?

“He only had a fever from Christmas Eve afternoon to Christmas night--less than 48 hours,” Vogler said. “We had made plans to take him to the doctor on Tuesday morning. [When he was found], we were on the phone with FHP.”

Authorities don’t have many immediate answers. A preliminary finding by the coroner’s office indicated he had brain and lung swelling, according to a source in the Costa Mesa Police Department. A coroner’s investigator said Wednesday that doctors suspect the child suffered some sort of virus.

But the cause of death won’t be available for two weeks to a month, when tests are completed. In the meantime, the Voglers and other parents with young children are left to wonder whether the boy could have been a casualty of a virulent flu season.

Mikey’s death came as hundreds of people--many of them children--flocked over the holidays to emergency rooms and doctors’ offices for treatment of influenza and other respiratory diseases. The boy got sick just a week after his 4-year-old brother got what his parents think was the flu.

Still, it would be extremely unusual for an otherwise healthy child to die so quickly of the common flu, health officials say. Dr. Hildy Meyers, an epidemiologist for Orange County, said she had not heard of such a case in more than five years on the job.

“We don’t know whether this was a bacteria or a virus or even whether it was infectious,” Meyers said.

Whatever it was, Fred Vogler said the family had little warning. The boy’s fever never exceeded 102 degrees and the night before he died, his cough had stopped.

Until Sunday, Mikey was a happy--and seemingly healthy--child. He had just earned a yellow belt in karate, he played in Little League and he passed a physical before school started in September, with no problems.

“They said we have a perfectly healthy boy,” Vogler said.

Mikey wasn’t just a sportsman. He threw his abundant energy into other pursuits, including drawing and painting. When he was in kindergarten, his art won him first place at the county fair.

He had an avid interest in rain forests and conservation, Fred Vogler said--and he wasn’t shy about his views. “You’d throw something in the trash can and he’d say, ‘Dad, we should recycle that.’ ”

Vogler spent much of his time Thursday on the telephone, taking calls from friends saddened by the news.

“He was always very friendly and gentle and good-natured,” Vogler said. “The phone hasn’t stopped ringing since the community found out. It’s kind of surprising to me to see how many people remember him and are concerned about him. . . . He touched so many people at such a young age.”

Funeral services are set for today at 1 p.m. at Harbor Lawn-Mount Olive Mortuary & Memorial Park in Costa Mesa. In lieu of flowers or gifts, the family requests donations be made to the organization Conservation International.