A Missouri teenager who has been diagnosed with cancer three times has died from COVID-19 complications, her family said.
Aspen Deke, 17, of Kansas City, succumbed to the virus on Saturday after a several-month battle that began with her diagnosis in November, Fox4 reported.
High school survived a rare form of acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a cancer that affects white blood cells.
When she was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 4, she was given a poor prognosis, the press said.
But he continued to beat the cancer three times after four rounds of chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant, Fox4 reported.
During her battle with coronavirus, she was hospitalized at Children’s Mercy Hospital, where she has been in the pediatric intensive care unit since New Year’s Eve.
Her family said that COVID-19 is, in a way, more terrifying than her previous health problems.
“At least with cancer, no matter how bad it is and it’s scary, but you know a lot about it,” her father, Eric Deke, told the news. “They can say, ‘That’s bad, that’s what we’re going to do. That’s what we expect. But with this, everything is unknown. ”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 267 children had died since the beginning of the pandemic – accounting for less than 1% of all deaths.