Nunavut heart transplant recipient turns to online fundraising for help in the South

Uviluq Naukatsik, who recently received a new heart, poses with her family in her hospital room.

A Nunavut woman who recently underwent heart transplant surgery is the third patient stranded in the South for life-saving medical treatment who has reached out this week for help through an online crowdfunding campaign.

Uviluq Naukatsik of Rankin Inlet went into surgery in Ottawa March 13.

“Now I have a new heart,” she says on her GoFundMe page.

But Naukatsik still faces challenges: she’s looking forward to being reunited with her children, aged eight, six, and nine months old.

However, after she’s released from hospital, she can’t see how they will all manage living in the one-bedroom apartment and eating on the $50-day stipend which she says the Government of Nunavut has offered her family.

That’s why Naukatsik is asking for donations to help cover the rent for a two- or three-bedroom apartment at the Ottawa Hospital Residence Corp., when she leaves the hospital in May.

“My children and my sister will be sent here after I get discharged and we will be in 1 bed room with the 6 of us and with that 50 dollars won’t feed all 6 and I will need to buy some pampers and milk for my 9 month old baby. That’s why I am asking for donations,” Naukatsik says on her GoFundMe page.

Naukatsik suffered from an enlarged heart after the birth of her last child, her condition deteriorated, and she ended up on a waiting list for a new heart.

She said that this past March 13, she received “the best news ever,” when she learned doctors had found a new heart for her — that was after they had warned Naukatsik this could take up to two years.

“Just lucky they found me a heart,” she said — but she’s still faces a long recuperation period.

Naukatsik is looking for $9,000 from her GoFundMe campaign — and raised $1,750 after one day online.

A Baker Lake woman receiving treatment for cancer in Toronto is also seeking help from the public to meet expenses.

Janice Simailak also launched a crowdfunding campaign on GoFundMe to cover some of the expenses that she, her husband and son must pay out-of-pocket in Toronto.

And a Gjoa Haven man undergoing treatment for cancer at an Edmonton hospital has also turned to online crowdfunding for money to help reunite his family.

Nunatsiaq News contacted the GN’s health department for comment about its policies on medical treatment for Nunavut residents in the South, but has not yet received a reply.

Nunavut’s health department remains the largest single recipient of government money in Nunavut.

Staff requested an operating budget of $317.4 million for 2015-16 in the spring budget, an increase of more than six per cent. That was to be used to hire more front-line health workers, improve on-the-job safety and service delivery, and battle the continuing outbreaks of tuberculosis and other infectious diseases in the territory.

But finding enough money to pay for specialized treatments not available in Nunavut has challenged the GN for years, and patients who require extended treatment in the South have largely been forced to manage on their own.

Now they’re reaching out to crowdfunding, a way of raising money for a project or venture by soliciting contributions from a large number of people, via the internet, to help meet their expenses in the South: GoFundMe, one of several online crowdfunding sites, says its site users have raised more than $790 million.

Before crowdfunding, local fundraising efforts helped Palluq Manning, 37, pay for his recovery.

He became homeless in 2005 after he was stranded in Ottawa following his recovery from a seven-month diabetic coma. He required dialysis treatment three times a week to keep him alive — a service not offered in Nunavut.

Because the GN no longer considered him a Nunavut resident, Manning was no longer eligible for housing or help from territorial patient services in Ottawa.

Because the GN no longer considered him a Nunavut resident, Manning was no longer eligible for housing or help from territorial patient services in Ottawa.