Aspen Deke Kansas City, Missouri teen, 17, who beat rare form of cancer 3 times dies from COVID-19 complications. Fort Osage High School junior spent month in intensive care.
A Missouri teen who beat cancer three times has died from COVID-19 complications, her family said.
Aspen Deke, 17, of Kansas City, succumbed to the deadly virus Saturday following a months-long battle that began with her diagnosis in November, Fox4 reported.
The Fort Osage High School junior had survived a rare form of acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a cancer that impacts white blood cells.
When she was diagnosed with cancer at age 4, she had been given a poor prognosis.
But she went on to beat cancer three times after four rounds of chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant, Fox4 reported.
Allowed to leave hospital until symptoms dramatically worsened
The teenager who had managed to overcame cancer, time and time again, hit another obstacle when she contracted COVID-1 in November and had to be rushed to hospital.
During her battle with coronavirus, she was admitted to Children’s Mercy Hospital.
After a month, it seemed as though Aspen was getting better, and she was allowed to return home for a few days – however not long after, her symptoms worsened, and the high school junior was readmitted to hospital.
She was diagnosed with pneumonia in both of her lungs, and on New Year’s Eve, Aspen was taken into the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, where she was intubated and put on a ventilator since New Year’s Eve.
COVID deaths among children constitute 1% of all coronavirus deaths
Her family said COVID-19 was in some ways more terrifying than her previous health woes.
‘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 FOX4. ‘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.’
Despite the best efforts of doctors, Aspen sadly died on Saturday after developing a condition called COVID-induced multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), which has similar symptoms to Kawasaki disease and toxic shock.
Both her friends and parents said Aspen loved to bake cakes and cupcakes for birthdays and holidays, and planned months in advance buying gifts for her parents, brothers and friends at Fort Osage High and others she met during cancer treatments at Children’s Mercy.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 267 children have died since the beginning of the pandemic — accounting for less than 1 percent of total deaths.
