MSP trooper passes away, leaves legacy of defying odds [Video]

WESTPHALIA, Mich. — Dane Van Ells set out to be a Trooper with the Michigan State Police. Instead of taking on his first assignments patrolling the Mitten State, he spent his tenure as a trooper pushing the boundaries for cancer patients, living years beyond what was expected.

Soon after graduating, Van Ells was diagnosed with DIPG— a rare brain cancer. What’s more; it was in the worst place possible— his brain stem.

“(It) tells the heart to beat, the lungs to breathe,” his mother told FOX 17 in a January 2020 interview. Doctors had never seen the mutation in that region of the brain.

Originally, he was given 6-9 months to live— but that wasn’t enough time. Dane began getting treatment at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and underwent a risky biopsy to qualify for further treatments.

His new brothers and sisters in blue wasted no time …