A lot of people are mourning the death of Edward Aschoff, a college football reporter for ESPN, who died Tuesday, Dec. 24, on his 34th birthday.
Before he passed, it was revealed that Aschoff was battling pneumonia. Later, his fiancée Katy Berteau revealed that he was diagnosed with hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH), which the University of Rochester Medical Center describes as a rare immune system disease.
“We are very sorry to have to share the devastating news of the tragic passing of friend and ESPN colleague Edward Aschoff,” said ESPN in a statement. “Our thoughts are with his loved ones, including his fiancée Katy.”
On Dec. 5, Aschoff tweeted about having pneumonia and seemed to be caught off guard by it.
“Anyone ever had multifocal (bilateral) pneumonia in their early 30s as some who never gets sick and has a very good immune system?” he asked. “Asking for two friends … my lungs.”
On Thursday, in a series of tweets, Berteau gave details of the young reporter’s death and explained how quickly his health worsened.
“As a journalist, it was of the utmost importance to him that stories be accurate,” wrote Berteau to explain why she wanted to give details.
“Edward was admitted to the hospital a week after our first visit to the ER, where he was diagnosed with multifocal pneumonia,” she continued. “After failed antibiotic treatment, with worsening of symptoms, we took him back to the ER and he was immediately admitted.”
“After many tests – bone marrow and lung biopsies – treatment was started for a presumed diagnosis of HLH, an unregulated, over-activation of the immune system that causes it to attack itself and other healthy tissues,” Berteau’s message read. “Within 3 days of being moved into the ICU, he passed.”
After graduating from the University of Florida, Aschoff began working at ESPN in 2011 and joined the SEC blog network.
He was a native of Oxford, Mississippi, and covered college football for ESPN’s “SportsCenter,” ESPN.com, ESPN Radio and the SEC Network.
