By writer to bangordailynews.com
Christopher Bouchard | Aroostook Republican
District Four Consultant Carol McElwee offered Caribou Metropolis Clerks with an American Flag on July 6. From left, Deputy Metropolis Clerk Kalen Hill, Carol McElwee, and Metropolis Clerk Jayne Farrin.
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CARIBOU, Maine — Former Deputy Metropolis Clerk Kalen Hill was recognized with a uncommon type of liver most cancers final 12 months. Now her likelihood of getting a significant liver transplant is on maintain till the COVID-19 pandemic is beneath management.
Earlier this 12 months, medical doctors at Lahey Hospital & Medical Middle in Burlington, Massachusetts informed her she was close to the highest of the checklist for the transplant — the one process that might save her life.
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“They stated [recently] ‘you can’t come down right here till this virus is beneath management since you would die’,” Hill stated, including that there are different folks in the identical state of affairs proper now.
Hill wants a full liver transplant from a deceased organ donor, which should meet a number of standards to ensure that Hill to undergo with the process. Along with not having any historical past of heavy alcohol or drug use, the donor must have Hill’s blood kind — a uncommon kind O unfavourable.
“I would like an entire liver,” she stated. “I can’t take a partial one as a result of the most cancers has unfold and I’ve cirrhosis on the underside of my liver.”
Hill stated she would fairly see a partial liver go to somebody it may really assist.
“I might fairly a baby get it,” she stated. “I’ve lived a superb 65 years.”
Hill’s common journeys to Boston started in April 2019. She traveled together with her brother Clarence Belanger utilizing Angel Flight Northeast — a free air service utilizing volunteer pilots to move folks to the medical assist they want once they can’t afford to make use of business means. She and her brother would land in Boston, Hill would endure a myriad of exams, pictures and procedures after which head again dwelling.
“I went by so many exams it doesn’t even make sense,” she stated with amusing. “MRI scans, EKG, they usually even gave me pictures for pneumonia and shingles. They requested when was the final time I’d had any of these illnesses and I stated ‘Heck if I do know.’”
Since she was first recognized, Hill’s co-workers and the encompassing neighborhood have come collectively to assist her with prices related together with her Boston space hospital visits.
Final 12 months, Metropolis Clerk Jayne Farrin and Deputy Treasurer Holli Doody bought baked items supplied by quite a few metropolis workers throughout the “Thursdays on Sweden” summer time occasion. Farrin stated all of Hill’s coworkers have helped her by this example ultimately, by offering baked items, donating objects for raffle or by buying an emerald inexperienced ribbon to indicate help for Hill’s battle with liver most cancers.
“I’m going to get emotional now,” stated Hill, “however I need to thank everybody very a lot, the entire metropolis of Caribou, the entire metropolis departments. They’ve all helped me by this.”
Hill would typically be greeted with the generosity of a neighborhood member, wherever she went.
“I might come to the grocery retailer they usually’d say ‘Don’t depart; I’ll meet you exterior,’ they usually’d donate one thing. I’d go to The Cubby they usually’d ask me if I may use some furnishings. I imply, folks have been simply unimaginable,” she stated.
Whereas Hill grew up in north Caribou, an space now often known as Connor Township, she spent greater than three many years in Denver, Colorado, together with her husband Ernest Hill, an Air Power veteran who had been stationed at Loring Air Power Base. The 2 had met in Van Buren in 1974, and later determined to maneuver to Arizona.
“We have been each sick of the chilly climate,” Hill stated.
The couple stopped in Denver on their technique to Arizona and ended up staying for 31 years.
“We ended up staying a bit longer than we deliberate and we ultimately needed to discover jobs. So we by no means did make it to Arizona,” she stated.
Her husband solely flew again to The County with Hill as soon as from Colorado, and it was to maneuver again completely.
“In 2006 once I was about to fly right here, he informed me to get a ticket for a second individual. He goes ‘I’m going with you.’ I ought to’ve recognized it proper then,” she stated.
Ernest Hill additionally had liver most cancers and had been hiding it from her for a number of years, his widow stated. He died in January 2012.
And whereas she’s immensely grateful for all of the donations and assist from the neighborhood, at this level Hill is asking anybody who needs to assist to wish for her.
“Pray,” she stated. “Pray that I get a liver in time.”
— to bangordailynews.com
