They say good things come to those who wait. For Maggie Minister that statement rings ever so true, even if it has been five long years.
Maggie finally received the news she’s been waiting for so anxiously. She has been put on the waiting list for a new set of lungs.
The operation is called a bilateral lung transplant and is very dangerous. First, new lungs have to be found that would suit Maggie’s body and system. Then there is a “24-hour critical period” where doctors find out if her body accepts or rejects the new lungs. After that Maggie would stay at the Notre Dame Hospital for three weeks and be housed at the House of Transplants for an additional six weeks. Both facilities are in Montreal.
One encouraging sign is the fact that the doctors have given Maggie a “three-month head start.” In other words, it’s like she has been on the waiting list for three months already.
Maggie will be equipped with a pager and will have two hours when the pager goes off to notify friends and family and make her way to the hospital for the operation.
She said she is going to spend the summer in Nemaska and then return to Montreal to await the operation.
Maggie could be on the waiting list for a year or more.
