A Missouri teen who beat cancer three times has died from coronavirus complications.
Aspen Deke, 17, of Kansas City, died on Saturday, Jan 30, following a months-long battle that began with her diagnosis in November, news station Fox4 reported.
The high school junior had survived a rare form of acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a cancer that impacts white blood cells.
She was first diagnosed with cancer at age 4, but she went on to beat cancer three times after four rounds of chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant, Fox4 reported.
During her battle with coronavirus, she was admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit at Children’s Mercy Hospital, where she had been since New Year’s Eve.
Her family said Covid-19 was in some ways more terrifying than her previous health issues and she didn’t survive this one.
“At least with cancer, as bad as it sounds and it is scary, but there’s a lot that you know about it,” her father, Eric Deke, told the news station. “They can say, ‘This is how bad it is, this is what we are going to do. This is what we expect.’ But with this, everything is unknown.”
