Missouri teenager who beat cancer three times dies from COVID-19



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A Missouri teenage girl who has beaten cancer three times has died of complications from COVID-19, her family said.

Aspen Deke, 17, of Kansas City, succumbed to the virus on Saturday following a months-long battle that began with her diagnosis in November, Fox4 news station reported.

The high school student had 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 had a poor prognosis, the outlet said.

But she beat the 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 Years Eve.

Her family said COVID-19 was in some ways more terrifying than her previous health issues.

“At least with cancer, as bad as it sounds and it’s scary, but there’s a lot you know about it,” her father, Eric Deke, told the news channel. “They can say, ‘This is how bad this 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 – representing less than 1% of the total number of deaths.

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