KELOWNA, B.C.: Conservative MLA for Kelowna Centre, Kristina Loewen, is calling for immediate accountability within BC Transplant after Kelowna mother Lyndsay Richholt shared that she continues to suffer while waiting nearly a year for a liver transplant, despite doing everything right.
“Lyndsay has been a model of patience, advocacy, and optimism,” said Loewen. “Yet she has been repeatedly failed by communication breakdowns, administrative errors, and a system that seems to have forgotten the human beings it serves.”
In a recent update to her supporters, Lyndsay described being hospitalized after a severe episode of hepatic encephalopathy, a brain disorder caused when a failing liver can no longer filter toxins from the blood. She wrote, “I didn’t know where I was. I didn’t know what day or year it was. I couldn’t walk, focus, or connect my thoughts. This is my life with end-stage liver disease.”
Now entering her tenth month on the liver transplant waitlist, Lyndsay says she has become “just a number, just a score” in a system that miscalculates the severity of her disease. Two potential live donors have completed testing, but she has received no updates, no surgery date, and no clarity from BC Transplant. “I am frustrated that my health care system is failing me. I’m (sic) impatient because I am suffering and dying,” she said.
“This is not just a paperwork problem, it’s a matter of life and death,” said Loewen. “When a dying patient is forced to advocate for themselves against the very system meant to help them, something is deeply broken. BC Transplant must take responsibility and immediately review both its MELD scoring process and its communication failures.”
Loewen said the government cannot continue to ignore the growing number of patients who are being failed by bureaucracy. “Lyndsay’s courage has inspired people across our province. She deserves compassion, transparency, and decisive action, not the silence and excuses so frequently heard from this BC NDP government.”
Those wishing to support Lyndsay and her family can do so through her verified GoFundMe page: https://www.gofundme.com/f/join-us-in-supporting-lyndsays-road-to-recovery
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Media Contact:
Ryan Painter
Communications
Ryan.Painter@leg.bc.ca
