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Keziah's Transplant Journey
CELEBRATE
the Gift of Life
SPRING 2022 | VOLUME 36
Keziah's Transplant Journey Message from the Chairman Message from the CEO
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Message from the SVP,
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Fund Development Message from the Director
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of Family Relations Keziah's Transplant Journey Continued 4 Green Shirt Day 6 April is National Organ and Tissue 7 Awareness Month
The Making of a Philanthropist— 8 Henry Kallan Appointment as Honourary Colonel 10 Wings and Wheels Partnership 11 Thank You to All Our Partners 11
Save the Date! A Night on Broadway 12 in Partnership with Hotel X Toronto
212 HENRY ST., VICTORIA, BC V9A 3H9 OFFICE: 250.475.1223 FAX: 250.475.1193 TOLL FREE: 1.877.777.7675
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Heart transplant recipient, Keziah, and her mother, Lyndonna.
Keziah’s Transplant Journey
Keziah is Lyndonna’s youngest child, born in October of 2014. Two days after Keziah was born, she was diagnosed with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, which meant that the left side of her heart was not pumping blood as needed. Due to this condition, Keziah was flown to the Stollery Children’s Hospital in Edmonton from her home in Calgary and underwent her first open-heart surgery at only two weeks old. Keziah TRANSPLANT NEEDED: HEART HOME: CALGARY, AB
Over the next four years, Keziah would undergo two more corrective open-heart surgeries. In July of 2019, Keziah began to complain that her chest hurt. Lyndonna immediately took her daughter to the nearby hospital in Calgary. The doctor did an echocardiogram and found that her heart was functioning at only 10%. She was flown via medical transport back to the Stollery Children’s Hospital for medical care the following night. The team determined that she would need to be listed for a heart transplant.
Keziah was transferred back to Alberta Children’s Hospital in Calgary, where she was to wait as an inpatient. This made things easier for Lyndonna to care for Keziah and her other two children at home, who were five and seven years old. Lyndonna balanced caring for Keziah and her siblings for all of August with the support of her mother, sister, and brother.
