A Missouri teen who beat cancer three times has died of COVID-19 complications, her family said.
Aspen Deke, 17, of Kansas City, died of the virus on Saturday after a months-long battle that began with her diagnosis in November, Fox4 news channel reported.
The high school student had survived a rare form of acute lymphocytic leukemia, a cancer that affects white blood cells.
When she was diagnosed with cancer at age 4, she had gotten a poor prognosis, the outlet said.
But she went against cancer three times after four rounds of chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant, Fox4 reported.
During her battle with the coronavirus, she was admitted to Children’s Mercy Hospital, where she had been in the pediatric intensive care unit since New Year’s Eve.
Her family said COVID-19 was in some ways more terrifying than her previous health concerns.
“At least with cancer, no matter how bad it sounds and it’s scary, but you know a lot about it,” her father, Eric Deke, told the news station. “They can say, ‘This is how bad it is, this is what we’re going to do. This is what we expect. ‘But with this 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 percent of the total deaths.