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