In September 2018, Lukah was brought to the Emergency department at Alberta Children’s Hospital in Calgary after a significant amount of blood was found in her diaper. Tests showed a large benign tumour in her abdomen that needed to be removed. The Calgary medical team removed the tumour and Lukah was set to recover. Hours after the surgery, the team discovered Lukah’s main arteries were running through the tumour, and removing the tumour put her into multi-organ failure.

Not being equipped to handle a situation of this calibre, Lukah was airlifted to the Stollery Children’s Hospital in Edmonton where she was given 24 hours to live. Lukah needed a multivisceral transplantation – multiple abdominal organs that come from the same donor. Lukah spent the next seven weeks in the pediatric intensive care unit waiting for a donor as her organs continued to deteriorate. On December 16 at 3 a.m. her parents got the call that a donor was found, and Lukah was prepped for surgery. Lukah spent the next four months at the Stollery recovering before she was able to return home. Today, Lukah is followed closely by her transplant team in Edmonton, and her family will be forever grateful to the donor family who gave their daughter the ultimate gift of life, and to the world-class medical team at the Stollery for saving her.