RIP Michaela DePrince
I was shocked and saddened to read yesterday of the extremely untimely death of ballet dancer Michaela DePrince. To compound the sorrow, her mother died a day later. It’s an incredible tragedy for the family and for Michaela’s sister Mia in particular, who had become very close to Michaela when they were both little children in a Sierra Leone orphanage. Mia’s and Michaela’s lives were utterly transformed when they were adopted by the same American family and they became sisters for real.
I wrote this post ten years ago about Michaela’s story. Her life could rightly be considered inspirational; she triumphed over great odds and hardship early on. In that previous post I included this video, but I’ll include it again:
Michaela DePrince was twenty-nine years old. Her family has not revealed her cause of death; perhaps they don’t even know it yet. Her mother died of unrelated causes without learning that Michaela had died, nor did Michaela know her mother was about to die (see also this).
Death at age 29 is worse than “untimely”. Michaela was very fit, as ballerinas are. So the cause of death swept her away as if in a tornado. My medical guess is it was something like an acute leukemia with huge white cell counts,maybe 200,000 (normal less than 10,000), which cause an actual sludging and poor flow of blood in smaller diameter arteries.
Michaela’s death was worse than “untimely”. It was like being in a hurricane or tornado with killer winds.
Medically, I suspect it may have been a severe acute leukemia, with white cell counts (normal=10,000 or less) of up to 200,000. Those cells by their very number cause a sludging or stoppage of flow through smaller arteries, and chemo cannot kill them once formed from their predecessors (e.g. myeloblasts) in the marrow. Once released from the bone marrow, those white blood cells have a life of 2-3 days. Death by sludge. But consistent with her young age.
Black women used (may still?) to use a concoction of various things like lye, potash, syrup, vinegar, piss, etc. to defend themselves and/or throw on cheating men. Oh, they would boil it before throwing it on the cheating male. Such concoctions have also been tossed on Cops during riots and/or protests – which may be why cops now have those face shields.
When I first read the story on Michaela DePrince – right after her death, I thought that those spots may have been from such a concoction, but in the video she said it was “vitiligo”…
What a beautiful story. Her extremely untimely death is a true tragedy. God bless her and her sister and the amazing man and woman who adopted and raised them!
Thank you for sharing this, neo.
Not that others are wont to throw sulfuric acid (battery acid) on victims, or others throw human waste ….. Face sheilds are worn for defense from many and sundry threats. Just sayin’ …..
But back to an untimely and tragic death. RIP Michaela.
How heartbreaking. And Mia, the sister left alone.
Mrs Whatsit:
There are other surviving siblings, which is good. But Mia and Michaela were especially close, more like twins.