A month after 7-year-old Jocelyn Dickhoff became the center of a precedent-setting Minnesota Supreme Court ruling, her family will lay her to rest.
The bubbly first-grader, who was looking forward to second grade and her favorite teacher, died Saturday of a rare cancer that she had fought most of her life, leaving her grieving parents and a Willmar medical clinic to carry on the high-profile legal battle over whether an earlier diagnosis could have saved her.
But over the past couple of weeks, Jocelyn's familywasn't dwelling on legal filings and court rulings. The cancer that had shadowed Jocelyn all her life began to spread again. Jocelyn turned 7 on June 12, but as new tumors spread to her chest and cancer-filled fluid surrounded her heart, the birthday party — complete with manicures and pedicures and a private, advance screening of "Despicable Me 2" — was held on June 28 in her hospital room.
"We had two birthday cakes," said her mom, Kayla. Jocelyn decided to save the ice cream cake with the fudgy, crunch center for a later date, but she died at 3 a.m. Saturday, never getting a piece of her most favorite cake.
Jocelyn was 2 weeks old in 2006 when Kayla and Joe Dickhoff noticed a suspicious lump on their newborn. But it wasn't until Jocelyn was 13 months old that a cancer specialist diagnosed alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma.
Her parents filed suit against a doctor they contend failed to properly diagnose the rare muscular cancer before it spread and reduced the odds of recovery.
While the legal battle took place in the courthouse, Jocelyn fought the cancer. She received 54 weeks of treatment immediately after being diagnosed and then led a "pretty normal life" for about 1½ years. But for most of her seven years, Jocelyn was far too accustomed to hospital rooms, radiation and chemotherapy, surgeries and ER visits.
When she was 4, she went to her mother's bedside in the middle of the night at the family home in Belgrade and asked: " 'Do you want me to stay with you forever,' " Kayla Dickhoff recalled. Of course, came the mother's reply. " 'Then I really hope Jesus doesn't take me away from you,' " her mom recalled her daughter saying.