Doug Kyed, an NFL reporter for the Boston Herald, has announced the death of his 2-year-old daughter, Hallie.
“Hallie died peacefully in her sleep on Sunday morning as Jen and I held her hands in bed,” Kyed began an Instagram post on Jan. 22.
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Hallie was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in April 2023. Kyed shared that the toddler recently relapsed after a bone marrow transplant and that her chemotherapy treatments had stopped working.
“Hal, my koala baby, my little Hallie Bear, my Sour Patch Kid. She’d yell ‘DADDDDYYY’ at me to take her on a walk around the hospital floor and then give me sweet little pats on the back when I took her out of her crib,” Kyed wrote. “She was so beautiful, naturally funny (and knew it) and was going to be a star in dance class. Doctors, nurses and hospital staff loved seeing which princess dress she’d be wearing that day (or particular hour).”
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In his post, Kyed noted that he and his wife, Jen, were "lucky" to be Hallie's parents and that their 6-year-old daughter, Olivia, was "fortunate to have the best baby sister."
According to her dad, Hallie’s interests included painting, “having an assortment of chips,” wearing rain boots, and her family.
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“If you can take anything from Hallie today, it’s to know exactly what you want and to be persistent in asking for it, whether it’s going on a walk, ride in the car or wearing a particular Disney dress (usually Cruella),” Kyed wrote. “I’ll miss rubbing her hair and kissing her head and telling her I love her most.”
"She really went through so much, and she was braver and stronger than I know I could have been," Kyed told TODAY.com in a text message Jan. 22. "I can't count how many times she had to undergo anesthesia for lumbar punctures or MRIs. After they found disease in her eye, she had to get eye drops every day, multiple times a day. They also found a blood clot in her arm, so we had to give her shots twice a day. Things that would be life-changing for most people became routine for her. Somehow, she was still able to find joy every day."
When Hallie was diagnosed with cancer, Kyed said her symptoms were a rash and swollen lymph nodes. Physicians initially thought it was an infection and prescribed antibiotics.
“After five days, the rash was still there, and we noticed some odd bruising on her legs and a distended stomach,” Kyed wrote on Instagram in April 2023.
After undergoing bloodwork, Hallie was admitted to Boston Children’s Hospital where she began receiving chemotherapy.
Acute myeloid leukemia, also known as AML, is a type of cancer in which the bone marrow makes a large number of abnormal white blood cells, according to the National Cancer Institute.
AML is the second most common pediatric blood cancer, but it’s still relatively rare, Dr. Richard Aplenc, a physician-scientist at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia previously told TODAY.com. According to Aplenc, in the United States, there are approximately 500 children a year between the ages of 0 and 14 who are diagnosed with AML.
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