ATLANTA — The fiancée of an ESPN reporter with ties to Atlanta released more information on Thursday about how he died - and lived.
Edward Aschoff, who covered college football for the sports network, died on Tuesday on his 34th birthday. His fiancée Katy Berteau took to his social media accounts on Thursday to share more about the kind of man he was - and also try to answer a few common questions among his followers and friends about what happened.
"As a journalist, it was of the utmost importance to him that stories be accurate," she wrote.
Berteau said that her fiancé was admitted to the hospital a week after their first visit to the emergency room where he was diagnosed with multifocal pneumonia.
"After failed antibiotic treatment, with worsening of symptoms, we took him back to the ER and he was immediately admitted," she said. "After many tests, including bone marrow and lung biopsies, treatment was started for a presumed diagnosis of HLH (hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis), which is an unregulated over-activation of the immune system that causes it to attack itself and other healthy tissues."
Berteau said that Aschoff died within three days of being moved to the intensive care unit.
While she said it was important for the public to know what brought his sudden death, Berteau said it was even more important to show the kind of person Aschoff was - even in his final days.
"I want to share the brightness that he showed, even up until the last day he was awake," she said. "He kept the doctors and nurses constantly laughing, and always made a point to thank them and tell them what a great job they were doing."
She said that even while he was in the ICU, he was coordinating with a friend on wrapping presents for her.
"He loved people with his entire being," she said.
Aschoff cut his teeth covering the University of Florida, where he graduated from, for The Gainesville Sun before joining ESPN in 2011, according to his public LinkedIn profile. He was based out of Atlanta and was known as the "ATL Kid" among ESPN staff, according to the network's report, before moving to Los Angeles to take on an expanded role two years ago.
According to ESPN, Aschoff was an inaugural Atlanta United season ticket holder and was in attendance for the 2018 MLS Cup Final to see the team win the title.
Aschoff was a native of Oxford, Mississippi, and was involved in ESPN's digital, radio and on-air coverage.
Adam Rittenberg, with whom Aschoff wrote an award-winning piece on race in college football in 2016, said on Twitter the reporter was "one of the best people I know."
Berteau said there will be at least two services - one in Oxford Mississippi and a larger one in Atlanta. Details for those services are still in the planning stages and she said they will be released soon.
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