Particle.news
Download on the App Store

Chicago-Area Transplant Patient Returns Home After Hurricane Melissa Stranded Her Without Medication

Local officials working with U.S. consular staff secured the drug supply that made her evacuation possible.

Overview

  • Trinette Britt-Johnson arrived back in the Chicago area Saturday night and was honored at a Rich Township welcome event on Sunday.
  • She became stranded in Montego Bay when Hurricane Melissa shut down air travel and local hospitals could not provide her post-transplant medication.
  • Britt-Johnson went without doses for more than 24 hours and recalled an ambulance reading her blood pressure at roughly 217 over 100.
  • Cook County Commissioner Kisha McCaskill worked with the U.S. State Department to locate the medicine, with a Jamaican doctor driving about 300 miles to obtain it.
  • She is being observed at a Chicago hospital as officials and medical experts note Jamaica’s limited access to specific transplant drugs during disasters.