MILWAUKEE (AP) - A 4-year-old girl who was found dead along with her mother after a house fire in Milwaukee had recently recovered from cancer surgery, according to the girl’s grandfather.
Konrad Ellenberger, a retired police lieutenant, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (https://bit.ly/22zKxWJ ) that his granddaughter, Madyson Marshel, continued to bring joy to her family, despite the physical pain she endured with neuroblastoma, a cancer that starts in early nerve cells and most often affects infants and young children.
“Even with a chest tube, an epidural and a morphine drip, she never complained, even though you could tell she was in pain,” Ellenberger said.
Two weeks after undergoing surgery in December to remove a tumor from her chest, she returned to school at Brookfield Christian School, and “everything was looking up,” he said.
“That’s what makes this such an unbelievable tragedy.”
Madyson and her mother, Jessica Ellenberger, were found dead in their home after the fire Saturday night.
The fire is being investigated as a homicide-arson case. Police haven’t said whether they believe the victims died in the fire or they were dead before the fire was set.
Ellenberger said his daughter was a hardworking, single mother with a wide circle of friends. She graduated from Wisconsin Lutheran High School in 2006 and spent a year at Concordia University in Mequon.
“It’s like a nightmare that we can’t wake up from,” Konrad Ellenberger said.
Madyson was scheduled to go to the doctor on Wednesday for her first follow-up MRI since the surgery.
“The week of her surgery was devastating for us, and our only prayer was to keep her disease-free for the rest of her life,” Ellenberger said.
“Unfortunately that didn’t last long.”
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Information from: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, https://www.jsonline.com
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