Friends keep vigil as WHS grad battles heart tumor

Posted at 12:40 p.m. on April 14, 2019

By Ed Byrne

The Brillion News

WRIGHTSTOWN – It is hard to think of a cancer more scary than the one Kaitlyn Van De Hey is fighting.

The Wrightstown High School graduate has a tumor in her heart. In fact, when first discovered, it was protruding through her heart, causing blood to leak out.

It is a very rare malignant heart tumor known as an Angiosarcoma. In the past 30 years, only 15 cases have been identified in the entire world.

It began two weeks into March when Kaitlyn was admitted to Aurora BayCare Medical Center in Green Bay. A liter of blood was taken from her heart and fluid from her lungs.

It didn’t take long for the doctors here to pass the baton to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and that is where Kaitlyn is being treated.

Her second cousin, Lauren Jeske, is a senior at Wrightstown High School, one of many relatives and friends who are praying and cheering and raising funds to help with the large medical bills that are coming.

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The family created a page for “Kaitlyn’s Story” on the Caring Bridge website. Donations there go to support Caring Bridge, and do not help the Van De Hey family with coming bills and expenses.

The Wrightstown FFA is planning to raise funds to help the Van De Hey family with travel and lodging expenses associated with Kaitlyn’s care at Mayo.

See the complete story in the April 11 print edition of THE BRILLION NEWS