The story of a Louisdale woman who waited two years in Ontario before receiving a double-lung transplant took a tragic turn this week.
Marilyn MacKay, who suffered financial hardship during her wait, died early Tuesday morning in Toronto, just six days after receiving her new lungs.
“They were trying to deal with their own personal issues, but they always had helping others in mind,” Louis Brill, president and CEO of the Lung Association of Nova Scotia, said of MacKay’s death.
Brill was referring to an aid package for Nova Scotians that was recently created because of financial struggles the MacKay family endured while Marilyn awaited her operation.
Lung transplants are not available in Nova Scotia, so the MacKays were forced to exhaust much of their life savings waiting in Ontario for the procedure.
Their situation improved in December 2008 when the provincial government extended emergency funding of $1,500 per month to help pay her accommodations in Toronto while she waited for the operation.
That aid is now available to other families.
