‘Overwhelming sadness my nephew is gone’

Becky Welch of Kansas City, Kansas, is a registered nurse who works in a recovery room and sees the surgical impact of cancer on patients every day. Cancer has also impacted both her and her family.

“Most of my relatives on my mother's side have had cancer. I have had testing revealing genetic mutations. I've had surgery to prevent one kind of cancer that can be caused by the gene. My 14-year-old nephew just died of complications related to cancer and his surgery.

“My nephew Ben Hieber died on March 9th.

“He was 14 years old. He was diagnosed with a germ cell tumor last fall, in September. This is a cancer that has a 95 percent rate of successful treatment. He had four rounds of chemo and then had surgery to resect the tumor in February.

“One thing after another happened. I kept saying ‘the kid can’t catch a break.’ Anyhow, he seemed to be improving, and then — suddenly and very unexpectedly — he coded and died on the 9th. His doctors were gobsmacked.

"He was an exceptionally talented viola player and had been offered a chair in the Detroit Youth Symphony Orchestra. His instructor said he could have had any career as a violist that he aspired to. He also played competitive lacrosse. He was just an all-around nice kid who really cared about other people.

“I only get to see my nephews about three times a year, so I’m not really close to them. But he got on Snapchat with me this fall, and we used to snap each other a few times a week.

“As a nurse, I might have ‘expected’ something like this, but for some reason I didn’t. I thought ‘He’s only 14, and he’s at the University of Michigan Hospital. There’s no way he can die.’ I am still a little bit in shock about the whole thing.”

Photo of a young boy playing the viola — Becky Welch's nephew Ben was a talented viola player. This picture was taken at one of his concerts before his cancer diagnosis.
Photo by Becky Welch, submitted

Becky’s six words to describe her cancer experience are “Overwhelming sadness my nephew is gone.” Share your six words here.

Becky’s words, which were shared digitally through Tell KC, have been lightly edited for clarity.

As part of a local reporting project around the upcoming Ken Burns documentary series, Cancer: Emperor of All Maladies, KCPT presents Cancer in KC.

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