His family made him promise he wouldn’t die on his 18th birthday. He kept his promise.
Eddie Nogay died at Manhattan’s Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center at 12:01 a.m. on Tuesday, the day after he turned 18.
Born in Uzbekistan, Eddie had come to the United States with his mother, Natalya Kan, and older brother, Victor, in 1999. Eddie was a bright and popular student, and became a star on the school’s volleyball team, ranking third last season in New York’s Public School Athletic League with 120 kills as the Fort Hamilton High School Tigers finished with a 5-7 record.
But when the season ended, Eddie complained of a painful lump on his right arm. Tests revealed a hemangioma that needed to be removed. Full recovery would normally take two weeks, but when they opened him up, what the doctors saw was something decidedly not normal.
A biopsy revealed a sarcoma and, when neither radiation nor chemotherapy proved effective, the decision was made to amputate Eddie’s arm just below the shoulder.
Ten days after surgery at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Eddie was back in the school gym moving nets and keeping statistics as manager of the girls’ volleyball team, which won the city championship last fall.
This season, the Fort Hamilton boys’ volleyball team won its first three matches with Eddie leading the way while undergoing regular blood transfusions and cancer treatments.
“I don’t want to say it has all just rolled off him, because he did understand it was serious,” said the team’s coach, Kim Tolve. “But he has been able to rebound. … Even the doctors and the nurses said they’d never seen a 17-year-old deal with this type of heartache and strife without flinching.”
Eddie’s determination and ever-present smile made him something of a celebrity at school. Eddie was even voted best dressed in his senior class.
“I just try to make the school a better place, make sure everybody around me is happy and friendly with everyone,” said Eddie. “It’s a good school.”
The school community reached out to Eddie and his family in return, especially Tolve, who was beside Eddie every step of the way.
“I can’t tell you how much she has meant to us,” Natalya said.
“Throughout the whole situation, my coach has been there,” Eddie recently told a reporter for the New York Post. “When my arm was amputated, I’m pretty sure people didn’t think I was going to play. But I told Coach, ‘I’m going to make it happen. I’m not going to sit around and let the disease kill me. I’m going to make a difference.’”
And so he did. Eddie was honored by the Francesco Luccisano Memorial Foundation, a Brooklyn-based organization that assists families of children with cancer, as one of “Frankie’s Heroes” for the hope he tried to instill in others.
But hope and determination wasn’t enough to save Eddie. His condition took a turn for the worse when it was discovered the cancer had spread to his lungs. He suffered a pair of collapsed lungs, a condition with which he had quietly played before submitting to more surgery.
Eddie’s doctors told him he could no longer play volleyball. But his dying wish, according to Tolve, was to play in the playoffs.
In April, without his teammates knowing he was coming, Eddie showed up minutes before the Tigers’ first playoff game. He was already in uniform, right down to his knee pads, and, most important, with a medical waiver from his doctors. He scored the first point of the game, and fifth-seeded Fort Hamilton went on to upset favored Hunter College High School.
After another hospital stay and additional blood transfusions, Eddie was too weak to play in the next round. But he cheered the Tigers on through the quarterfinals before they lost to the High School of American Studies, the eventual New York City champions.
Nogay reentered Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan on May 19 after a low hemoglobin level left him anemic. He was receiving blood transfusions daily and had a tube into his lungs through his stomach draining bloody fluid following another lung collapse in April.
Eddie’s mother and brother had planned a birthday celebration for Monday night, June 3, at the hospital. More than 50 of Eddie’s friends showed up. But there would be no party. Eddie’s breathing had become light and irregular.
Kim Tolve remained at Eddie’s side, along with Eddie’s family and a few close friends. “There were a few times we thought he had taken his last breath, but he always found a way to take another,” she reported.
His 18th birthday ended at midnight, and Eddie Nogay died one minute later.
“I’m still happy,” Eddie said in one of his final interviews. “Obviously, there have been moments where I’ve cried and been down on myself. But I don’t let anybody see that or they may lose hope, too.
“After everything I’ve been through, honestly, it’s not about me anymore. I just want to make a difference in people’s lives so they realize anything is possible. Just make a change.’’