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ESPN Reporter's Fiancée Reveals He Died of Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, Not Pneumonia

"It has helped me knowing that his passing was inevitable, and I’m at least grateful he didn’t have to go through the painful treatment and drawn out process of battling the disease,'' Katy Berteau wrote about Edward Aschoff's condition

Sports reporter Edward Aschoff.
Courtesy ESPN

The fiancée of ESPN college football reporter Edward Aschoff shared that his sudden death at 34 on Christmas Eve was actually caused by stage 4 non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and not pneumonia, as doctors previously thought.

Katy Berteau wrote in a Twitter thread on Aschoff's account Wednesday night that doctors found non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in his lungs following his death.

"I wanted to provide an update about Edward’s passing that may help people in processing it and making a little more sense of what happened," she wrote. "After his passing, the hospital received the final results from his lung biopsy. Unbeknownst to us, Edward had stage 4, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in his lungs. This is an aggressive type of cancer that is usually undetectable until it is very advanced."

Berteau had written in a Twitter thread last month that Aschoff was admitted to the hospital a week after being diagnosed with multifocal pneumonia. Doctors also diagnosed him with hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH), a rare autoimmune disorder, after bone marrow and lung biopsies.

"Both pneumonia and non-Hodgkins lymphoma can trigger HLH in the body and that is seemingly what happened with Edward,'' she wrote on Wednesday. "All of this combined is what led to his very rapid decline those last few days, and ultimately his passing."

Aschoff had tweeted on Dec. 5 that he was suffering from "multifocal (bilateral) pneumonia" after falling ill following his coverage of the annual football game between Michigan and Ohio State.

Learning the new information seemed to bring some comfort to Berteau. The two were set to be married in April.

"It has helped me knowing that his passing was inevitable, and I’m at least grateful he didn’t have to go through the painful treatment and drawn out process of battling the disease,'' she wrote.

She also asked that donations be made to a scholarship fund in his name set up by Aschoff's alma mater, the University of Florida’s School of Journalism and Communications, to help aspiring journalists.

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