Tayt Andersen, Ellen Show regular, dies at 19 after long illness

Tayt Andersen, a 19-year-old who regularly appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show and who chronicled a life of severe heart disease and later cancer, died early Friday, his family said. The death was announced in an Instagram post on the teenager’s account, which said he was "released from his bodily prison" at 1:30 a.m. Central time, surrounded by family after a final decline following an infection the previous weekend.

Andersen’s family described a last weekend spent calling and FaceTiming relatives so they could say goodbye, pressing his hand to make a keepsake, and watching his favorite movies and reading his favorite stories. The post asked for privacy and prayers as the family navigates "crushing grief." His mother, Chrissy Becker, commented on a tribute shared by Ellen DeGeneres, thanking the former host for the support she said had given Tayt strength.

According to a family-run GoFundMe page, Andersen was born with only half a heart, a condition variously described in accounts as the absence of the left side of his heart. He underwent 12 surgeries by age nine, received a heart transplant at 10, and later developed post-transplant lymphoma in his teens. He was diagnosed...