A 17-year-old who managed to beat a rare form of cancer three times has tragically passed away in her parents’ arms after she was diagnosed with coronavirus.
Aspen Deke spent most of her life fighting acute lymphoblastic leukemia after she was diagnosed with the disease at the age of four.
She endured years of grueling chemotherapy and underwent a bone marrow transplant and CART-T cell immunotherapy.
Aspen beat the disease three times and just when her battles were finally over, she was rushed back to the hospital where she was diagnosed with coronavirus two weeks before Christmas.
When she seemed to be getting better, Aspen was allowed to go back home for a few days but her symptoms started to worsen and she was readmitted to Children’s Mercy Hospital in Missouri.
On New Year’s Eve, she was diagnosed with pneumonia and she was taken into the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit where she was placed on a ventilator.
But despite doctors’ efforts, Aspen died after developing COVID-induced multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C).
In a heartbreaking post on the fundraising group, organizer Aimee Loring wrote: “At 6:40pm Aspen Deke passed away in the arms of her mom and dad.
“Thank you all for all your prayers and love and support. Please understand that we are processing a lot and won’t be responding to texts or phone calls.
“Please keep the boys in your prayers. Thank you.”
In an interview with Fox 4 before Aspen’s death, her father Eric said: “At least with cancer, as bad as it sounds and it is scary, but there’s a lot that you know about it. 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.”
Because of Aspen’s cancer battle, her body was not strong enough to fight the virus.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends during this difficult time. Rest in peace, Aspen!
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